Return Of The Eastlandians: A Brainiac 5 Story
by Leepet
Summary: Brainiac 5 and Phantom Girl got knocked into a different dimension by a strange girl the Legion was fighting. But who is she? Briany claims he's never seen her before. But why does she claim she's Brainy's sister and what is it she wants him to remember?
1. Enter

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Legion Of Superheroes! This is based off the animated version so if it doesn't mesh with the original Comic Book story. Sorry. I ****do**** own all the characters/places/items that are not in the storyline for the show/comic. This is my first story. And if you bothered to read this… Snaps for you! And now: On with the fanfic!!!**

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_**Return of the Eastlandians:**_

_**A Brainiac 5 Story**_

**Enter**

"Brainy! What do we do?" Superman yelled.

Brainy stayed silent. 'What was she doing? What was she trying to accomplish?'

The Legion charged again, desperately trying to get the field disrupter from the girl. She leapt out of the way of Lighting Lad, Saturn Girl, and Phantom Girl into Brainiac 5 and Superman.

But she seemed to anticipate this. She spun around in mid-air and threw 2 small green rocks at Superman. He didn't realize what they were but jumped back on an instinct. She then focused her black eyes on Brainy.

"Alex?" she said, her eyes widening into yawning black caves. "Is it really you?" she took a step forward.

"What are you talking about?" Brainy asked. "Give us back the field disrupter."

She rolled her eyes. "Nah. I think I'll finish what I'm doing here and then give it back."

"In pieces? Do you think we're going to fall for that?" Lighting Lad shouted.

"As soon as the portal is opened you'll get it back exactly the way it was." She replied. The girl started to mutter strange words under her breath. The field disrupter hummed and rose into the air.

"What are you trying to do?" Brainiac 5 yelled.

"You'll see Alex." She whispered. The mutterings grew in intensity.

"My name's not Alex." Brainy said.

"Are you sure you don't know her?" asked Lighting Lad.

"Of course not!"

Lighting Lad flew in front of the girl. "Give us the field disrupter or we'll have to do this the hard way." He got circles of electricity around his hands.

"You people really need to calm down." She said as she dodged an attack from Lightning Lad. She stopped under the field disrupter. "Snantri! Snantri!" She yelled.

The field disrupter pulsed a yellow-green color and a circle of air swirled together. Through the swirling air you could see some bushes and trees. "Yes!" the girl yelled. She ran past super man and Saturn Girl. They made a grab for her but she easily dodged and threw another bunch of rocks at Superman. Brainiac 5 and Phantom Girl stepped in front of the hole.

"You stop here." Phantom Girl said.

"So now you associate with these people Alex? What an Earth-"

"My name's not ALEX!" Brainiac 5 yelled. This was really getting on his nerves. "I don't even know you."

She shrugged. "That hurts Alex. That really hurts." She sighed. "Blah, blah, blah, too many words and I don't care anymore. I'm leaving."

The circle was getting smaller every second. The girl dived inside it knocking in Brainy and Phantom Girl with her.

The field disrupter pulsed a purple-red color and fell to the ground. The circle of trees and bushes, Phantom Girl, Brainiac 5, and the girl had all disappeared.

"Where did they go?" Superman asked, having recovered from the Kryptonite. "Where's Phantom Girl and Brainy?"

"They got knocked into that portal thing with the girl." Saturn Girl answered.

"But where are they?" he pressed.

"How are we supposed to know?" Lighting Lad asked. "This is Briany's department."

"So what do we do? We have to find them!" He was sounding more panicked every second.

"We have to figure out how this thing did that." Saturn Girl answered calmly. Superman opened his mouth. "We're doing all we can right now. Don't worry about Phantom Girl or Brainiac 5. They can take care of themselves."

"I hope you're right." Superman whispered.

"Yes! I'm back! WOOHOO! Hear that Fate? I'm baaaaaack!"

Brainy sat up and rubbed the back of his head. 'I must have hit it on a rock when I landed.' He thought. 'Wait a sec… landed where?' He looked around. Strange trees and bushed surrounded him. "Huh?" he said.

Phantom Girl poked her head out of some bushes. "Brainy, where are we?"

"How I am supposed to know?" He replied, a slight edge to his voice. "We're not on Earth anymore at least."

"So what do we do?" she asked.

"Beat you again Fate! Keep trying! Maybe someday you'll win! Ha! Ha!" Laughter echoed around them.

"What is-" Phantom Girl started. But the girl from before zipped through the clearing where they sat.

Brainy extended one of his arms and grabbed her foot.

" Hey! Lego!" she yelled.

"Where did you take us?" demanded Phantom Girl.

"Take you?" she retorted. "You were in my way. It's your fault you're here." She looked at Brainy. "I'm glad to see you too Alex but unhand me!"

"Look." Brainy said. 'Man this is getting annoying.' "I'm not Alex. We've never met before."

"Say whatever you want Alex. I'm surprised you don't remember by now… but that aside–" she twisted her foot around backwards, straightened it out and yanked it out of Brainy's hand. "You guys need to get back to your home. So follow me!" She darted into the trees.

Phantom Girl and Brainiac 5 just stood there. Phantom Girl broke the stunned silence. "Well, that was weird. So do we follow her?"

The girl pocked her head back into the clearing. "Come one! We don't have all day! I've got people waiting for me!" They didn't move. "Ok then." She sighed, sounding annoyed. "Look, my name's Trish. I already got what I need from that disrupter and now you're in the 27th dimension. I promise not the hurt you but the animals in the forest don't. So you have two choices: Follow me to the city and get back home in one piece or get eaten by a dragtor (drag-tor) and get sent home in a matchbox."

Phantom Girl blinked. "Wha- What's a d- dragtor?"

Trish looked at the sky as if trying to remember something, "Oh... something between a gargoyle, a dragon, and a creepy monk on a bad day."

"Not much of a choice." Brainy said.

"So come on! Oh, what's your name?" Trish pointed at Phantom Girl.

"Phantom Girl."

"Huh. Weird name. Mind if I called you P. G.?" she didn't give her time to answer. "Good! Well daylights wasting! Come on PG! Alex!" Trish went back into the bushes. Phantom Girl followed her.

"MY NAME IS NOT ALEX!!!" Brainy yelled.

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**There it is! The first chapter! Please read and review! Any constructive criticism is welcome!! Thanks!**


	2. Encounter

**I hope you are enjoying the story so far. Read on readers! Read on!**

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**Encounter**

Trish and Phantom Girl flew in front already deep in a conversation. Brainiac 5 lurked behind them. 'They certainly like each other.' He thought bitterly. 'I wonder why she keeps calling me Alex. It's not like I'm the type of person you can get mixed up with someone else… Wait!' A horrible thought entered his mind. 'What if the Coluans sent her?' He'd heard about them searching out anyone who dared to leave. He shook his head. 'No. She would look Coluan. Wouldn't she? Besides she would have only knocked him into the portal. No. She couldn't be one of them.'

"Brainy? She asked you a question." Phantom Girl said.

"Huh? What?" He blinked on focused on Trish's form. She looked like she was doing the backstroke.

"Do you remember anything?" She said. "Anything at all from before?"

"No." He said. His mouth tightened into a straight line.

"Ah! Don't be so grouchy all the time little brother! It really doesn't suit you." She smiled at him.

"Little brother?" Phantom Girl asked. "She's your sister?"

"No she's not!" Brainy answered.

"You're so mean!" She faked a look of hurt feelings then burst out laughing. Suddenly she stopped. Stopped laughing, stopped smiling, stopped moving. She just stopped. She narrowed her black eyes on the forest below. Silently she lifted her hand and pointed downward. "Asgesto manis dragtor yamu. (As-guess-tro man-is drag-tor ya-moo)" She whispered.

"What did she say?" whispered Phantom Girl.

"Didn't you hear?" Brainy asked.

"Yeah. But it was in a different language." She said.

"No it wasn't."

Phantom Girl looked at him as if he was crazy. "Well what did she say?"

"Be quiet. Look down there is a dragtor." He stated. Phantom Girl shook her head and looked down. There, was what could best be described as was something between a gargoyle, a dragon, and a creepy monk on a bad day. Trish put her hand over Phantom Girl's mouth before she could scream.

"Don't make too much noise. Those things can jump pretty high." Trish said. She let go of Phantom Girl's mouth.

"That thing is so creepy!" Phantom Girl said.

The dragtor looked up and bent down ready to jump. "Well, too late." Trish sighed.

The dragtor launched itself into the air. Just missing Trish. It fell back down with an 'iiiiiiieeeeeee'.

"What do we so about it?" Brainy yelled as it nearly grabbed his arm.

"Well, there's only one thing I know works." Trish said.

"We would like it if you could tell us." Phantom Girl said as she and Brainy dodged yet another attack. "Before it eats us all!"

"Yeah!" Brainy moved his head just as the dragtor's teeth grazed his arm. "Ow. Tell us."

"I would suggest." Trish looked at her two wards. They kept jumping back and forth trying to avoid the dragtor. She just stood there unmoving. "That," she took a step to her right as the dragtor zoomed up where she had been moments before. "We," she stepped to the left and the dragtor zipped back down past her. "RUN LIKE THE WIND AND NEVER LOOK BACK!" She tore off through the sky like a rocket. Brainy and Phantom Girl flew after her.

They flew for they didn't know how long, every once in awhile they heard a zing-iiiiiiieeeeeee-thump of the dragtor behind them. Phantom Girl started to turn around. "No!" Trish commanded. "That's how they get you. They make their victims run and then when it turns around…" she stopped. "You get the idea. If we keep going like this we'll get out of it's territory and it will leave us alone."

"The way you spoke about the dragtor it sounded like some terrible thing." Brainy said.

"Well." Trish said. "Would you know how to get rid of them without killing one? I mean if you knew that then you know that once a dragtor is dead more come around and feast on whatever is there. And nothing has ever escaped the dragtors in all the known history, and even if you do you'll be jailed for killing a King Creature."

"Wow." Phantom Girl said. She laughed. Brainy frowned.

"Lighten up Alex! Look up ahead! There's the city!" Trish said.

"I'm not-" Brainy started, but he stopped. He wasn't getting through to her.

"It's beautiful!" Phantom Girl said. The skyline was magnificent. Towers spiking into the sky, flags fluttering in the breeze, antennas pointing to the heavens, large square buildings by the towers, low flat ones looking like the ground, twisted buildings spiraling up as though a staircase, statues of people, sculptures of twisted wire, trees opening their green leafy arms to the sun, birds dotting the sky like little black lines of paint the artist had forgotten to clean off, tiny silhouettes of people's hanging wash, and over it all a massive, rainbow colored dome. The dome looked like a bubble still trapped to the wand. It had to have been made of glass, but it was far too large and birds flew in and out of it freely. All of this glowed in purple and blue shadows. Dappled in the glowing red-orange of the setting sun behind it. It looked, almost like a paradise. It had to be. It was perfect. No smog clouding up the air, no smell of greasy over-cooked food… And it was beautiful. But even more so... Neither Phantom Girl nor Brainiac 5 could think of a word that did the city justice. There was not word in their language for this kind of beauty. The city didn't look out of place or overpowering as it rose up out of the forest. It looked as though Mother Nature herself had grown the city right out of the Earth.

'This must be a city of dreams. Nothing else could make it so pure. So… familiar.' Brainiac 5 gasped. This was the city he had been seeing in his dreams so often! The dream of a beautiful city and a voice… What did it say? Those words! Those words someone had spoken in his dreams. He couldn't ever remember them. But they seemed so important now!

"Mehkisutrio allahee weropila Yamista. (Meh-kee-soot-tree-oh all-la-hee where-row-pee-la yam-is-sta)" Trish said. Brainy looked over at her. She was staring at the sun behind the city and crying. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. But she was smiling. Then she yelled out. Almost as if praising a god, "Yamista! Yamista weropila kyama! Noy hoto grow asti rempow Yamista! (yam-is-sta! yam-is-sta wher-row-pee-la k-yam-ah! N-oy hoh-toh gr-ow as-tee rem-pow yam-is-sta!)

"I agree." Brainy said without thinking. "That defiantly describes this place."

Phantom Girl looked between them and groaned. "Will someone tell me what she said?"

"I'm sure you heard her this time." Brainy said, turning to her.

"Yes but it was in a different language! How do you know it?" She yelled.

"You really understood me?" Trish asked.

"Of course." Brainy answered.

"YOU ARE ALEX!!!" she yelled. Trish threw her arms around Brainy and hugged him tight.

"Please stop calling me Alex." Brainy begged. "I don't know how I understood you. I just did. My name is Brainiac 5. Everyone calls me 'Brainy'. Now please. Stop calling me Alex. I'm not him!"

Trish let go. "You really don't remember a thing do you?" She said.

"What is there to remember?" He asked.

"So… so much Al- Brainy." She answered. "But I guess if you haven't remembered by now you never will." She looked back at the city. "You must really not want to remember what they took away from you. Do you? No don't answer. It's time to move on. That's what we did then and that's what we'll do now." Trish blinked and wiped away the tears from before. She had stopped smiling. "You… you both need to go back to your dimension. But know this Brainy- I'm sorry for what happened. To you and everyone else. I'm-" she took a deep breath. "I'm so sorry."

Brainy just stared at her. "What are you-"

"We better keep moving. Or we won't make it by nightfall." Trish said cutting him off.

Brainy didn't say anything else. Neither did Trish. Phantom Girl tried to break up the awkward silence that had begun, "Umm... what's that dome made of?" No answer. "Pretty cool sunset." No reaction. "What's a King Creature?" Silence. "Who's this Alex you keep talking about?" This earned a glare form Brainy but she switched the subject before something even more awkward came up. "What's this city's name?" Absolutely no change. "Nice clouds you… got… here…" 'Man, that's just stupid.' She thought. So she gave up. So they all flew off in silence toward the beautiful city off in the distance.

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**I will try to get the next chapter up as soon as I can. Please be patient!**


	3. Ensigns

**I do not own the Legion of Superheroes but I do own all the new characters that appear in this chapter. Enjoy!**

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**Ensigns**

That night they reached the city dome. Even up close it was beautiful. And though they hadn't spoken for a while the awkwardness of the situation had died down.

Phantom Girl looked around. She didn't see any kind of door, gate, or any entrance at all. "How do we get inside?"

"Simple." Trish replied. She walked up to the dome. Her skin changed from the regular pasty white-purple color to a black-green combination. Her white-blond hair darkened to a maroon shade. The black eyes widened so much the lids almost disappeared into her hairline. Which was quite an accomplishment because Trish didn't have any bangs… Then Trish extended her hand and touched the dome at eye level. Her middle finger lifted and she struck the dome with it – hard. Instantly an opening in the dome appeared. Trish removed her hand but didn't move until she had returned to normal colors. She turned around. "Let's go!" She sounded as if she had forgotten the 'incident' and was just happy to finally be home.

Brainy and Phantom Girl didn't even bother to ask what had just happened. It was yet another thing they didn't understand. As they walked through, the opening closed and they got their first view of the city from the inside.

Every person looked like they could have been Trish's relatives. Everyone had some sort of pasty pastel color skin tone that looked like suede, very light hair, and one-color eyes. Every color you could think of was an eye color: purple, grey, and white, yellow, blue… But there was no white surrounding the color and no black dot in the center. The very center of the eyes was slightly darkened but overall it looked like two small oval plastic colored balls from a McDonalds' playpen had been stuck in their faces.

But Trish's eyes were different – mainly because she was the only one with black eyes and a small white dot in the center. But this small difference stood out as if she was a flying lizard painted neon orange. But Trish walked proudly into the crowded city streets. "We're going over there!" she cried over the din. "To that scaly-looking building!"

Brainy and Phantom Girl quickly caught up with Trish. Everyone was wearing the same blue leather-like jeans and brown collared sleeveless tee shirt just like Trish. And they didn't want to get lost. "Why don't we just fly there?" Phantom Girl asked as she was pushed around. "It's way to crowded down here!" She made a grab for Brainy who was very nearly dragged away by the crowd of people. "We're being crushed!"

"It's market day." Trish answered. As if that explained everything. She quickly grabbed Brainy and Phantom Girl from being trampled by a large cart pulled by an even bigger horse. "And there are way too many outsiders here to have the police to worry about flyers. So anyone who flies above that line…" she pointed out a bright green line painted along the buildings, "They get zapped to the prison like that." She snapped her fingers.

"Why on earth would they do that?" Brainy asked.

"I don't know." Trish said as it dawned on her. "I guess they just don't want people flying overhead with bags and spilling them…" She offered. "But come on let's hurry. I'm way overdue."

"For what?" asked Phantom Girl.

"You'll see PG." Trish said. All three of them hurried toward the building.

The building itself was just a round tower. But it was covered in what looked like some sort of skin. Phantom Girl stared at it.

"Don't worry PG!" Trish said as they approached it. "That stuff is just a special kind of rock. It's not really skin."

"Oh good." Phantom Girl let out a sigh of relief.

Brainy looked at the building. Like everything else it seemed to have no door or gate or any means to get in at all. "I'm getting kind of tired of asking this but how do we get in? Doesn't anything around here have an actual door?"

"Nope." Trish said brightly. She examined the wall in front of her. "If they haven't changed the lock – which I doubt they have – then this should work." She laid her left hand on the wall sideways, her fingers pointing right. Then her right hand's pinky and ring fingertips touched the space between her left pointer finger and middle finger and middle finger and ring finger. She then bent her thumb around her wrist and touched the space under it.

Once again a space opened like a mouth. An automated voice greeted them, "General Trish, Welcome back."

"You're a general?" exclaimed Brainy.

Trish didn't answer. It was all she could do to not run inside but she held herself back so Brainy and Phantom Girl wouldn't get lost in the coming maze of hallways inside.

"Wow! It's huge!" Phantom Girl cried out.

Trish smiled and gestured them forward. She stepped briskly down the hallways. Brainy blinked as Trish kept walking forward with Phantom Girl. 'What was that?' he thought. Did he really, just for an instant, see teal wings on Trish's back appear and disappear? 'No way.' He convinced himself. 'It was just a trick of the light.'

They walked down the hallway. Left, right, straight, left, left, right again, through the maze of hallways they went. Turn right, go up a few stairs and finally through a doorway, and left to a silver door.

"Is this where the people are that are waiting for you?" Phantom Girl asked.

"Yep. But they have no idea I'm coming. Hence them not meeting me at the door." Trish replied. "Now shh!" She put a hand to her lips and opened the door.

Inside were more of the skin-like walls but embedded into the walls was thousands of screens and monitors. Every shape, size, and color was there. Brainy stood in the doorway and stared. It was a technological paradise.

"This place is better than your lab Brainy." Declared Phantom Girl.

Brainy didn't even answer. It was. There was everything anyone would ever need or want. There were keyboards spread around the walls for different things. If Brainy was thinking correctly then there were keyboards and computers for launching ships, keeping track of police activity, watching the streets, and even one for watching other planets.

Above their heads was a giant sized keyboard. Tall enough for someone, Brainy measured the distance with his optical computers, 12 feet and 7 inches tall. 'Who could be that tall?' he wondered. 'Maybe Trish flies up there to work. No… it's too large. So who is it for then?'

There was an oval table in the center of the room with chairs around it. The end facing the door where they had come in was open. And around the walls were blue high-backed chairs. Over the top of one of the chairs Brainy could see the top of someone's head.

The head perked up and the chair turned around. Sitting in the chair was a girl with pale green skin. She had bright green eyes and dark navy-blue hair put into pigtails by two large orange bows. She was wearing a green skirt and a yellow shirt with green sleeves. The shirt was slightly lighter at the center and had thin black lines going across it diagonally. Her shoes looked like green cowboy boots.

No longer than Brainy and Phantom Girl had seen her then she was gone. In a flash of green and a loud scream of recognition the girl had Trish pinned to the wall in a giant hug.

"Trish you're back! Don't ever do that again! Next time you leave you have to tell us where you're going and when you'll be back! But why am I lecturing you? I should be thankful something didn't eat you! Oh Trish! If you ever leave us again I'll kill you! No I won't! What am I saying? I guess I'm just so, So, SO, SO, _SO_, _**SO**_, glad you're back at long last! Oh! But I'm so glad to see you! Where were you all this time? Don't ever leave us again! If you weren't a girl I'd kiss you! I'm so glad you're back! Trish why did you leave? Well it really doesn't matter does it now that you're back. I hope–" she was saying all this very fast and just kept talking about absolutely nothing.

While all of this was happening four other figures entered the room through a door to the right. When they realized what was happening the tallest of them came over and slipped a giant finger between the two girls. "Come on Speed, let the rest of us get a word in."

Speed's cheeks went a darker green as she blushed. She let go of Trish and smiled. But, before Trish could say anything she was scooped up into pale yellow arms and being squashed by the giant's hug.

The man squishing Trish was indeed 12 feet and 7 inches tall. He was wearing what looked like a yellow sweatshirt with the sleeves ripped off. The ends of the shirt were stained orange. He was also had orange pants and yellow sandals. He looked sort of slow in the head because he was wearing yellow sunglasses, had a weird brown hair cut with a brown goatee and had a stupid smile on his face. But the black tattoo on his left shoulder made him look slightly smarter.

Trish was squirming in his grasp. "Gantor! Can't breathe! Crushing bones!" Her voice got more strained. "Puncturing organs!"

"Oh! I'm sorry." He put her down. "Look at that. You finally come back and I'm going to end up killing you with a welcome back hug." Speed snickered.

Trish started smiling but a large shadow fell over her. She slowly turned around and was face to furry face with an orange liger. "Oh no Joe!" She covered her face as the liger opened his mouth exposing a long sky blue tongue. It wagged its tail and licked Trish. "Ewww…" Trish groaned.

She started to wipe off the slick coating of slobber left by the liger when she straightened up. "Ahh! Yoom! Get out of my head! Get out of my head!" Trish was banging her hand against her head. A small light blue thing zoomed out of Trish's right ear. "What are you doing?" She asked it.

"Issuing a welcome thought." Yoom replied. Yoom was tiny but seemed to grow steadily taller until she stopped at about 6 inches tall with light blue skin, purple messy hair, and blue eyes. She had full length purple sleeves attached to a toga like shirt on top of purple yoga pants. Her yellow shoes caught Phantom Girl's eyes. They were bright yellow and sparkled as if dipped in starlight.

Trish groaned and held the side of her head. Then she looked sideways at Yoom, and then smashed her against the wall. She lifted her hand to reveal a flat Yoom with bug eyes. "Gee thanks." Yoom said in a high-pitched strained voice. She peeled away from the wall and floated down to the floor.

The only one to still welcome Trish back was the pale red man by the door. He had on brown leather pants with two light brown belts and red shoes. A dark brown shirt with three wooden circles in a straight line down the center and red sleeves with wide ends was topped with red shoulder pads. A giant scythe was strapped to his back. And his long maroon hair was pulled back in to a ponytail. A small lock of white-blond hair was attached to the hair over his left forehead. He had not moved and his mouth was hanging open. "Trish?" whispered the man.

Trish didn't answer because she was still trying to wipe off all the slobber from Joe. The man stretched his arm and grabbed Trish around the waist. His arm then shrank back to normal as he pulled her close. "Don't ever leave me again." He said. And with that he planted a kiss on Trish's lips.

Trish's eyes widened in surprise a split-second before narrowing in disgust. She pushed away the man. "Tor! You weirdo! What are you trying to get at?" she said between bursts of laughter.

"I missed you. What did you expect?" Tor answered with a smile that melted Phantom Girl's heart.

"I think I'm in love." She said folding her hands and putting them up to her cheek. "He's so hot!"

Brainy rolled his eyes. Why did he suddenly feel so outraged? Why did he feel like he should step forward and say something to that man? This feeling that he should protect Trish… something like he was her broth…'I must not be thinking straight.' And he quickly dismissed those thoughts from his mind.

Trish was swaying on the spot. "Great welcome back guys!" she said. She clapped once winced and shook her hands out. "Next time," she fell sideways onto Gantor's thigh, "Thank you Gantor." She pushed herself up. "Try not to kill them."

"Sorry." They all replied.

"We all just missed you so much." Speed said, looking at the floor.

Trish frowned. But the corners of her mouth twitched before she broke into a wide smile. "What do you all look so sad about?" she cried out. "Come on get in here!"

Brainy and Phantom Girl stood in the doorway and watched the joyful reunion. Trish, Gantor, Speed, Tor, and Yoom were all laughing and hugging. It was like a high school reunion with old friends. Joe the liger was jumping up on top of people and licking everyone. They both felt awkward just standing there but they all looked so happy finally being together that they didn't want to ruin the moment.

"Oh! Hey guys! I want you to meet some people." Trish's voice called from the group huddle. The group parted and they were all smiles. Trish ran over to the door where Brainy and Phantom Girl were standing. "Guys," she said addressing Brainy and Phantom Girl, "These are the Ensigns under my command from the Dimensions At War Indimensional Protection Agency or the DAWIPA. (Da-Whip-uh) Speed, the speedy technological genius from Jusc,"

The green girl waved, "Hey!"

"Gantor, our resident giant and strong guy,"

The giant smiled and nodded, "Hello friends!"

"Yoom, the thought sprite,"

Yoom zoomed around. "It's a pleasure!"

"Joe, the liger our resident licker, both literally and figuratively," Joe jumped up and barked like a dog.

"And Tor, the weirdo and other Eastlandian." Finished Trish.

Tor bent his left leg up to his knee and his right arm to his waist and bowed deeply. "The pleasure is yours I'm sure." He straightened up and winked at Phantom Girl. She blushed and giggled.

"And everybody this is Phantom Girl," Phantom Girl smiled and blushed deeper as Tor's eyes rested on her. "And–"

"ALEX!!!!" screamed Tor. He ran over to Brainy and picked him up in a giant hug. "Man I thought you were dead! They didn't hurt you too badly did they? I'm so glad you're back! Try not to leave again ok?"

"Tor." Trish sighed. Brainy squirmed but he couldn't get out of Tor's grip.

"I mean did it hurt? Did anyone else come back with you?"

"TOR." Trish said.

"Is she one of them too? She sure looks different than you do."

"TOR!" Trish yelled. He looked at her. "That's not Alex." She said.

"But he looks just like him." Tor pointed out.

"But he's not Alex." Trish said. Tor pointed at Brainy who was still clutched in his arms. "Yep that's who I'm talking about."

"Would you mind letting me go?" asked Brainy.

Tor squeaked. He looked at Brainy. Tor put him down gently and backed away to stand behind Gantor. "Sorry." He called.

If Brainy could have shot daggers or fire from his eyes Tor would have been pinned to the wall and burned to a crisp.

"Sorry about that." Trish said.

Phantom Girl didn't want another awkward silence to begin. The first one was bad enough. "So what was the DAWIPA thing?"

"Dimensions At War Interdimensional Protection Agency is what grouped us together." Yoom said into her ear.

"Ahh!" Phantom Girl screamed and flung her hand at Yoom who was squished to the wall.

"It's a good thing you're one of those old cartoons right Yoom?" Gantor laughed.

"Old cartoons?" Brainy asked.

"Yeah. Old cartoons had anvils dropped on them all the time, and got squished flat, electrocuted, and a whole bunch of other things. But they were always just fine in a couple minutes. They couldn't die unless everyone forgot about them." Gantor replied. He looked over at Phantom Girl. "When the Dimensions are at war any of them could collapse."

"And if that happened all of the other dimensions involved or not could be in danger of an Armageddon." Speed said.

"So we were all called together to help out in case of emergency." Yoom finished.

"Sorry about squishing you." Phantom Girl said.

"It's fine." Yoom said brightly.

"All of you? Where did you all come from?" Brainy asked.

"Gantor is from Intermat. That's the 8th dimension version of your Pluto. Speed is from Jusc. That's a small planet outside of the Coluan space in the 20th dimension. Yoom is from the minds of animators who made her up and then let her run wild in the minds of everyone who saw her. Unfortunately, since the 6th dimension was destroyed, that's where she was created, she's not as well known as others. And Joe is just your average Liger who got dipped in the chemical 'Remitin' (Rem-ing-ton) better known as 'Chemical Romance'." Tor summed up. Counting off the members on his fingers. "And of course there are a couple of people who are part of the group but work in the other planetary groups so we don't see them much."

"What about you and Trish?" Phantom Girl asked.

"Well, that's a long story. And I bet you two want to get home." Trish said.

"We've got time." Phantom Girl said. Brainy looked at her. "What? We can figure out why they keep calling you Alex."

"If you really want to know…" Trish said reluctantly. And she and Tor started to tell their tale.

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**There you go Chapter 3. Sorry if it was kind of boring. I will try to add more action in the next chapter. The next one will be about what the Legion is doing! I know I'm not letting you know why Brainy is being called Alex. I'm mean, I know, but I will get it written ASAP!!! Please Read and Review! Thanks!**


	4. Epiphinay

**Chapter 4! Don't worry; the next chapter will answer all your questions! Or most of them anyway…**

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**Epiphany**

"Anything yet?" asked Superman.

"Nothing yet. And would you stop asking? We're all worried. But we can't just say some magic words and 'POOF' they're here." Lightning Lad said. "You really need to calm down. I thought a 'man-of steel' would have 'nerves-of steel' as well."

"As much as I hate to admit it, he's right." Saturn Girl sighed.

"Hey!" Lightning Lad said.

Saturn Girl paid no attention to him. "I just checked with all of the other team members, but Brainy and Phantom Girl are nowhere to be found."

"So what are we going to do?" Superman cried. "We can't just sit here and do nothing when our friends might be in danger!"

"Superman you need to calm down. They'll be alright." Saturn Girl put her hands on his shoulders. "They can take care of themselves."

"She's right." Lightning Lad replied. He turned back to the computer screen and continued to type.

Superman started to open his mouth again but Saturn Girl entered his thoughts. 'Stop Superman. We may not act like it but we are worried as well.'

'He sure doesn't seem like it.' Superman thought bitterly.

Saturn Girl sighed. 'Lightning Lad has never been good with showing his feelings. But trust me; he's worried, maybe even more than you.' Superman looked at her in surprise. 'You see when he was young if you showed your feelings at all you'd be labeled as a weirdo and become an outcast from the community. So he learned to always keep acting like everything was cool or just a small annoyance.'

'I didn't know.' Superman thought.

'No one does. I just know because the first time I met him he was thinking about it so strongly I got wind of it without meaning too.'

Superman looked over a Lightning Lad. For the first time he saw a bit deeper. Lightning Lad hated computers but he had been using one for the past two days to find out where their friends went. "I'm sorry guys." He said speaking aloud. "I just get so worried…"

"We know." Lightning Lad said. "You're always so dramat- hey guys! I found something!"

"What?" Saturn Girl and Superman came over to the computer. "What did you find?" they asked at the same time.

"I think I know how top get to wherever they went and how to get them back." Lightning Lad answered.

"Let's go then." Superman suggested.

"It's not that simple." Lightning Lad retorted. "We have to find out how to rewire the main core of that field disrupter. Or else we might never come back."

"She didn't rewire that thing did she?" Saturn Girl asked.

"No but she some sort of magic pull on it. So she didn't have to. But I don't think any of us can figure out how to do whatever she did." Lighting Lad said.

"Let me look." Saturn Girl took the field disrupter from the shelf it had been sitting on and looked it over. "Pull up the page you found it on."

Lightning Lad did. "Maybe you can make sense of this." He said. "I can't make heads or tails of it."

"Well maybe I can figure it out." Saturn Girl looked at the field disrupter. "Let's see…" She opened the back to expose the internal wiring. She started to fiddle with the wires.

Superman peered over her shoulder. "Hey!" he said, "I think I've seen one of these before. Let me try." He took it out of her hands and bent the wires this way and that.

Lightning Lad stared at him. "How do you know how to rewire it?"

"Back at home I was in charge of electronics and general maintenance and plus this is just like a science project I've done." Superman replied as he continued to mess with the wires. "That should do it." He slipped the back on and held the field disrupter out to Saturn Girl. She didn't move. "I don't know how to really work it." He admitted.

"Now that's something I can do." Lightning Lad said. He grabbed the field disrupter, flipped it around and shocked it. The disrupter rose into the air.

"Did it work?" asked Superman. The disrupter changed to a yellow-green color and pulsed.

"That's your answer." Lightning Lad said. Directly under the disrupter air swirled together to see a large room and in it was their missing friends.

No one moved. "Do we go in?" asked Lightning Lad.

"Do we have a choice?" Superman replied.

"Look!" Saturn Girl pointed at the swirling air. Brainy and Phantom Girl were listening to the girl who had knocked them in. They couldn't hear them but Saturn Girl was getting a bad feeling about the conversation. "We need to get in there! I've got a really bad feeling."

"Well let's go then!" Superman replied. They all flew into the circle but were pushed back out. "What happened?"

"What were those words she yelled? Maybe we need to say them." Lightning Lad asked.

"Sand-in-tree. Or something like that." Superman said.

"Maybe we have to be touching." Saturn Girl offered.

"Huh?" Superman and Lightning Lad said together.

"Well that's what happened when that girl knocked them in." she replied.

"I'm game. I'll try anything." Superman said.

They grabbed hands. Saturn Girl yelled, "Snantri! Snantri!" and they fled through.

Unfortunately for them, the hole had gotten slightly smaller and they fell into the room. Rather ungracefully. In fact they landed on top of the friends they were trying to save. Phantom Girl saw them in just enough time to switch to phantom mode. But Brainy was not so lucky and ended up on the bottom of a doggy pile.

"Ow." Lightning Lad rubbed his head.

"Get off!" Brainy gasped.

"Sorry." Superman apologized.

Trish walked up to them. "Well, looks like your friends decided to come and get you." She declared. "Welcome to the DAWIPA headquarters for the 27th dimension." She helped Saturn Girl up.

"Yes. Now leave." Yoom commanded. Yoom was buzzing angrily around Lightning Lad's head.

"Yoom be nice." Gantor said, smiling. "She doesn't like guests."

"Yes I do!" Yoom retorted. "But now we have five here. A bit much don't ya' think?"

"Well they are thirds." Speed spoke. Everyone turned and looked at her. She shrugged. "Well they are."

"What are you talking about?" Superman asked. "Who are these people?" he asked, turning to Brainy.

"Yeah. And where the heck are we?" Lightning Lad demanded.

"It's ok guys." Phantom Girl stepped out in front of them. "This is Trish, Yoom, Gantor, Speed, and," she blushed. "Tor." The liger behind her let out a soft growl, "Oh, and Joe." The liger licked her. "Ewww."

"Are you guys alright?" Saturn Girl asked turning to Brainy.

"Yeah we're fine." Phantom Girl replied. "You guys shouldn't have been so worried. We can take care of ourselves."

Superman glanced at the floor. Trish understood immediately what must have gone on. She saw that same action to all the new ensigns who still weren't as comfortable as they could be. "Well, I guess it's time for you two to go home. Safe journey! Maybe we'll meet again! Work hard so your dimension will get dimensioned!"

"Wait! You were going to tell us where you and Tor came from." Phantom Girl said.

"Well, you don't really need to know." Trish said. "So goodbye!"

"But, you said–" Phantom Girl started. She stopped. That sounded whiny, so she spoke again, "Besides you already started."

"Listen, you don't need to know." Trish glanced at Brainy.

"He hasn't remembered anything has he?" Tor asked. Trish shook her head. "Then why don't we tell them? Then everyone will be happy."

"Tor, you know why." Trish shied away from his outstretched hand and hugged herself as if she was trying to shield herself from cold. "He doesn't remember. And if he hasn't remembered by now he doesn't want to. Memories always come back no matter how forcefully they are removed. Besides," she lowered her voice, "why remind Alex of everything he has lost. You can't miss the flowers' scent if you never smelled it."

"Who's this Alex?" Saturn Girl asked. She tried to pry into Trish's thoughts. She usually didn't do that but this sounded like it was important. Trish stared back into her eyes and forced Saturn Girl's mind back with a strong blast from her own.

"You won't find out by mind probing." Yoom smirked. "I've been trying that for years."

"Trish, we should tell him. Alex has a right to know." Tor said.

"But he's not Alex." Trish retorted. "Alex is gone. Long gone. And I have been way to naive, believing he might want to come back after all these years!" Tears welled up in her eyes but she fought to keep them contained. Tor started to say something but she spoke first. "Would you Tor? Would you? Alex has been replaced. Don't you see that? Now a new life has replaced it. And that life mist live on its own memories and course. Not on the memories from a past that's all but gone. I've accepted it Tor. And you should, no, have to as well."

Brainy stepped forward. "Why don't you just tell us? Maybe we can find this Alex."

"Sorry to break up the moment guys but we have a situation in Market Square." Speed called. She was sitting at a computer. "The Megs are back."

"Still? How many times do we have to beat them before they will leave us alone?" Trish eagerly changed the subject. "Well come on we have a job to do."

Brainy looked at her. "When we get back you will tell us." He said sharply.

"Fine." Trish said reluctantly.

All of them came out of the building. You could see the smoke rising from a street off to the left. Tor smiled evilly. "Let's go have some fun!" but underneath his bright cool exterior you could tell he was worried about Trish. Lightning Lad could tell at least. He flew up and just ran with him. Not saying anything. But they didn't need to.

Yoom led the way and soon they could see the aftermath of whatever had gone through. Gantor sniffed the air and walked over to a fallen roof. He bent down and picked it up. Two dogs and a child crawled out. "Thank you Mister Giant!" the child called and quickly ran away with the dogs.

"Well this will take awhile to clean up." Speed remarked.

"Yeah but let's treat the underlying problem first." Yoom called. Everyone from DAWIPA burst out laughing.

"Huh?" Lightning Lad said. He hated to be left out of jokes.

"Well, the Megs did this and they came from the 1st dimension. Which is underneath all of the dimensions. So they are literally an 'underlying problem'." Speed answered. She came up and walked next to Lightning Lad. 'He's cute.' She thought. 'But not too bright.'

They kept moving: the Legion members, minus Lightning Lad, flying overhead and the DAWIPA team with Lightning Lad running along the ground. After a few minutes there was a sudden loud rumbling.

"Here they come!" Trish yelled. "Yoom! You're on!"

"Right-O!" Yoom flew towards the rumbling. Suddenly three very large and ugly tan-yellow bull-looking creatures with large clubs came out of the ground. Saturn Girl saw Yoom fly into the left one's right ear.

"What is she doing?" Saturn Girl asked.

"And what are those things?" cried Lightning Lad.

"Those, my friends, are the Megs. When they came to the other dimensions they were horribly disfigured. And they seem to think it is somehow our fault. So they want all dimensioned dimensions to collapse. Which spells out big trouble for the DAWIPA." Speed said.

"Dimensioned dimensions?" Saturn Girl inquired.

"Dimensions who can have their inhabitants cross from one dimension to another on their own. Without help from and enchanted field disrupter." Speed answered

"Incoming!" Gantor yelled.

They all jumped in different directions as a giant rock was hurled at where they had just been. Gantor ran back to the rock. "Joe! Type A Format!" Joe pounced on the rock and wrapped his tongue around it. Gantor heaved the huge rock up and threw it at the Megs.

The tallest of the three caught the bolder. Then it let out a yowl of pain. Joe had changed. The tongue had spikes on it and Joe himself was now bigger than Gantor. Joe retracted his tongue and launched himself at the Meg's eyes. He licked the eyes and started to bite and claw all over.

As this was happening Yoom zoomed out of the Meg's ear and came back covered in the Meg's yellow earwax. "Yuck." Yoom said.

The other two left their screaming companion and ran towards Gantor, clubs raised. "Twenty-three!" Tor shouted. The other DAWIPA members jumped up and clapped their hand together. They stayed suspended in midair about twelve or so feet above the ground.

Balls of energy formed on each pair of hands: Green for Speed, Yellow for Gantor, Purple for Yoom, and Teal for Trish. Tor was still on the ground and reached back to his scythe with his now red glowing hands. He lifted it out of its straps and pointed it to the sky where his friends were. They in turn pointed their hands at the scythe. The scythe pulsed once and all the colors transferred to it.

Tor yelled and swung the scythe. "Onsi wor trachee!" (On-see wore trah-chee!) The Megs screamed as the blasts of light coming from the scythe raked over them. Tor stayed in the same position of aftershock from the swing

"What did that mean?" Lightning Lad asked. The rest of the Legion was absorbed in the beauty of the attack but Lightning Lad was just confused. They weren't helping because it looked like the DAWIPA team had handled pretty well.

Speed floated over to them. "That meant 'Go back to your own dimension.' In Trish's and Tor's language."

Phantom Girl looked over at Brainy. "Brainy, did you understand that?"

He nodded slowly. Speed's smile widened. "It's magic."

Brainy snapped out of his blank stare. "Look!" he pointed up to Trish. She was having some sort of spasm in midair. Her head was so far back it was on her back. Her eyes were rolled back into her head and large teal feathery wings had burst from her back.

The other DAWIPA members were floating back to the ground. But they didn't know what to do. Tor had recovered from the scythe swing and looked up at Trish is horror. "Purity! Alex where are you when we need you?"

Brainy didn't know why and later he didn't even remember how he knew what to do, but he flew up to with one thought in his head, 'I have to help Trish.'

Her wings lashed out and flapped desperately. They were covered in blood. Trish's body jerked around. She wasn't making a sound but the Meg's screams made up for it. Suddenly he mouth opened and she let out a terrible scream.

"Ahh!" everyone covered their ears. It was a horrible sound. Like fingernails being dragged across a blackboard combined with a wail of unending pain.

Brainy winced but still flew up to her. He dodged the thrashing wings. Brainy clapped his hands together and slammed them into Trish's back. He then opened them and rolled his knuckles up and out to the wings. He quickly dropped his hands as Trish started to fall. Brainy caught her and brought her back down to Tor. "Help her." He pleaded.

Tor took Trish's unconscious form in his arms. He stared at Brainiac 5 for a couple moments and then bent down with Trish.

Besides the two bloody teal wings now hanging limply from her back she looked all right. Tor placed her on the ground and started tracing things in the air. But before he could finish the two Meg's yelled out and started coming straight toward them.

"We got this!" Lightning Lad called down. He gestured to the others but before they could even start to fly over to fight the Megs Yoom floated up.

Yoom's eyes flashed a deep purple and she yelled in a commanding voice, "You beasts are to return to your own dimension. By the new thoughts in you minds do as I command!"

The Megs slowed down and started to backtrack, looking dazed. The third one being attacked by Joe finally keeled over. Joe returned to normal and trotted back over looked as happy as a dog that had caught a Frisbee.

But everyone was too busy looking at Trish and Tor who was still tracing in the air. They all stayed strangely quiet as if waiting for a miracle. Tor whispered some indistinguishable words and stopped drawing. Trish opened her eyes and coughed. "Note to self," she said in a horse voice, "no more using magic after dimensioning."

Tor smiled at her. "You I-Dot." He said. She grabbed the hand he offered and stood up. He wings arched up behind her. The teal feathers spotted with blood.

"That was really quick thinking Brainy! How did you know what to do?" Superman asked.

"I have absolutely no idea." He replied, shrugging.

"That proves it!" Tor said. "You're Alex! Whether you remember or not! And since he is we have to tell him!"

"Well, let's deal with this thing first." Yoom said and pointed to the unconscious Meg.

"Oops. Must have missed that one." Tor said with a sinister grin. He pointed the scythe with one hand at it. "Onsi wor trachee! Melca tic!" (On-see wore trah-chee! Mell-ca tick!)

"I got the first part but that was the last part?" Phantom Girl asked.

Tor smiled. "It's better if you don't know."

"And don't have the guts to say it." Speed said. She was standing very close to Lightning Lad and was holding his hand. She looked very happy. He, on the other hand, looked embarrassed.

"Let's get back to headquarters." Gantor suggested.

Tor let Trish lean on his shoulder as they trudged back. "We'll tell you." Tor said when Brainy looked at him. Trish nodded.

After a few minutes later Trish flapped her wings and shook off the drying blood. She then flew up and started flying next to Brainy. Tor sprouted his own wings and shook off the drying blood. Brown and leathery like a demon's they were the exact opposite of Trish's teal angel-like feathery wings.

He flew up and took the other side of Brainy. "Trish and I will try to answer all of the questions you might have. I swear on m honor as an Eastlandian."

"I'm not the one who wants to know. And what's an Eastlandian?" Brainy retorted. 'But you're curious.' His thoughts replied.

"You'll find out." Tor winked at him.

Brainy had a reply to this as well but Trish wasn't even listening. 'I have to tell him… But how do I say these things?' she wondered. Trish looked up and saw that Phantom Girl was filling in the rest of the Legion on what had happened and that Tor and Brainy were in a full-fledged conversation.

Each person was absorbed in their own thoughts and conversations until they got back to the scaly-tower and the promised story of Tor and Trish and the mysterious Alex was told.

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**Chapter four! Whew! That took me a bit. I hope you liked it! The next chapter is going to be fun! And incredibly long… well I better get started! Hang in there! I'm typing as fast as I can!**


	5. Explanation

**TA DA! And now the chapter you've been waiting for! Finally you will know who the heck Alex is. And why he's so important to Trish and Tor. But I won't keep you anymore so on with the chapter!**

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**Explanation**

The group sat down at the oval table in the main room. Tor and Trish stood at the end of the table. On Tor's left sat Phantom Girl making dreamy eyes at him. To her left sat Gantor. Brainy had chosen the seat directly across from Trish. He was staring intently at her on the edge of his seat. Saturn Girl and Superman sat on either side of him, Superman on his left Saturn Girl on his right. They both knew how important this was to him. And just in case it was bad… They didn't want to see what would happen. Between Saturn Girl and Gantor Joe sat on the floor, drooling contently on Gantor who seemed not to notice. On Superman's left side sat Lightning Lad looking very uncomfortable as Speed was holding his left hand. And Yoom had opted to sit on the table space between Superman and Lightning Lad. Yoom it seemed was having a hard time not laughing at the look on Lightning Lad's face. But it was dead silent in the room.

"Well, where do we start?" Tor asked.

Trish's eyes flitted from face to face. Everyone's face except Brainy's. "It's really hard to say it..." She seemed very uncomfortable and embarrassed.

"Trish can you still do that scary brain thing?" Gantor asked.

"Which scary brain thing? The one from last week or one of the other ones?" Trish responded.

"That one where you go all… 'Oooh' and we go all 'Eeee!'" Gantor waved his hands around to emphasize his words.

Tor looked at him. "That one where everyone's like 'Ahh!'?" he raised his arms in front of his face like he was casting a spell.

"No the other one." Gantor replied.

"Oh that one!" Trish said. "Yeah I think so... great idea! Let's see…" During this exchange the Legion was trading looks of confusion and stifled laughter. Everyone except Brainy, he hadn't moved since he sat down. "Ok, we'll try that. I'm going to implant the images in your minds… it'll be easier than trying to explain it..." Trish said. She raised her hands up and chanted something under her breath. "It's starting. Don't worry I'll explain what's happening if you don't get it. Now during this time we will all be linked." Trish explained. "It won't hurt."

A flash of reds, blues, and greens was ignited before their eyes. Well, rather in their minds. It was like a dream. They were all still awake but were only aware of what was happening in their minds and the other minds around them. And so the story was begun.

The group heard, very faintly, Lightning Lad's exclamation of 'What's going on?' Then Trish's voice was heard sounding like a narrator commenting on a story. "These are Tor's and my memories of the things that have been. As of now, you are witnessing the final days of the Eastlandians…"

As these mellow-dramatic words were spoken a scene appeared. A bustling city surrounded by a lush green forest. Superman looked around and was surprised to see ghostly figures of the rest of the group except for Trish and Tor. He opened his mouth to speak when Trish's voice stopped him. "This is better than having an 'out-of-body' experience isn't it? I thought it would be less confusing if you could tell where you were."

Lightning Lad blinked a few times and floated over to hover next to Saturn Girl. Far away from Speed. "So we're basically ghosts."

Gantor appeared behind Lightning Lad and clapped him on the back. Lightning Lad jumped. "Yep that sums it up."

Brainy looked around. "Where did Trish and Tor go?" The other Legion members looked around too.

Yoom zoomed to Brainy's left ear. "Well, since these are a combination of Trish and Tor's memories they can't obviously be in two places at once. So they're just outside of mind reach. Otherwise this wouldn't be able to happen."

"Then why is Brainy still here? I mean if he's supposed to be this Alex, then why-" Saturn Girl started.

"It's not his memories. And the Alex we remember is different." Tor's voice said. "Now look. Down at the wall."

Two figures had appeared on top of the wall. The group of 'ghosts' floated down closer as the figures came into view. A younger version of Trish jumped down into the foliage. "Alex! Hurry up! I want to show you this while there's still some sun left!" she called. Two things stuck out as different: one, wrapped around her left arm was a white metal tube and though her wings were not out you could see a faint outline of them against the leaves.

The second figure called down after her. "Do we have to? Is it really that important?" He called in a childlike voice. It sounded suspiciously like Brainy's voice. Lightning Lad glanced at Brainy, who was too absorbed in the scene unfolding before him to notice. Saturn Girl caught Lightning Lad's eye and shook her head. Now was not the time for Lightning Lad's sarcastic remarks.

The boy jumped down after Trish. He was about half a head shorter than Trish and was a very light blue skin tone. His blond hair fell gracefully over one eye. The other was a weird shade of purple-pink. He was wearing a dark green t-shirt top with blue jeans over dark purple tennis shoes. At his hip there was a large brown gun. You could just see a faint outline of some forest green wings. "That boy is Alex. My younger brother." Trish's voice said. The boy, Alex, ran after his sister.

"Oooh. Brainy if that's supposed to be you-" Phantom Girl started, she raised her eyebrows playfully at him, "You're _**HOT**_!" Joe barked at this comment almost as if he was laughing.

"What?" Brainy and Lighting Lad exclaimed together.

"I agree." Speed offered. "Trish you never told us your lost little bro was such a cutie!"

"Seeing this makes me want to be a girl instead of an 'it'." Yoom said.

"You _are_ cute in that form Brainy." Saturn Girl said.

Brainy's cheeks turned a darker shade of green with each of these comments. He turned around to hide how much he was blushing. He didn't ever remember feeling this embarrassed. Even his first alignment without the collective couldn't top this. Brainy was now practically radiating with embarrassment.

"Come." said Tor's voice, breaking up the chatter. "There's much more to see." The group floated behind the two teenagers. Soon the young Trish stopped short. Alex ran into her and they fell to the ground.

Trish spoke, "Seesh. Of all the brothers in the world I could've had, I got stuck with you. Get off."

"Well you were the one who stopped because of nothing." Alex replied. He scrambled to his feet and brushed himself off. "Why are we going this way? You said it was nearer to the river… that's that way." He pointed to the right. "This way is towards- oh no." he clapped a hand to his forehead.

"You're brilliant Homes. Did you get that yourself or did you need help?" Trish commented under her breath and started off again.

Alex shook his head and followed. "Will you stop quoting the 3rds? It's very annoying."

"You're annoying." Trish retorted.

"Yeah? And that was the 12th time you quoted something from the 3rd dimension! First from those books you're always reading, then from those annoying songs-"

"Hey!" Trish pulled back a branch a bit too hard and it whapped Alex in the chest. "No dissing the music! 3rds actually have good taste."

"You don't have any taste." Alex laughed.

"Says the boy who can hear a G and a C and can't tell which is higher. I swear, someday I am going to take that head of yours, screw it off, and feed it to the ligers." Trish muttered. "Come on." They continued through the forest. As the two came to a clearing they saw, leaning against a tree, a younger Tor. He was wearing a blue shirt, and black jeans. The scythe was still on his back. He didn't have as many lines around his eyes or the dark circles underneath his eyes. But instead of looking shorter he looked taller.

"Yeah I shrunk." Tor's voice said. "If you say anything, you're dead."

The group heard Trish's voice snigger. "You did look better taller." She added.

"I'm going to hurt you." Tor's voice cried.

"Well, do it later. We're telling a story here." Trish's voice laughed. The group refocused on the three teenagers.

"You brought along your little brother?" Tor asked. The voice that came out of his mouth was high. This Tor, it seemed, hadn't gone through puberty yet. Tor sighed. "It's not natural. You two get along too well. It's creepy."

"Do you want to see this?" Trish asked. The two boys looked at each other.

"Maybe if you told us what we're going to see." Alex said. Tor nodded.

"Fine." Trish said. "I found a dimension portal." Tor and Alex looked at each other and back at the young Trish. Then they both burst out laughing. "I did! I'll prove it!" Trish ran off to the right.

"Trish wait up!" Alex called. He ran after her. The younger Tor sighed and followed. The trees around the group thinned and became a field. In the distance you could see a line of trees. Faintly you could hear the babbling of a brook.

The 'ghosts' looked at each other as they followed the three figures. Superman glanced at Brainy. He was floating along staring at the ground. Superman expected to see an unreadable face as usual but was surprised. He could read Brainy like a book. He was confused, worried, and slightly creeped out by all this. Superman blinked. 'This is weird. Brainy usually hides his feelings really well.'

"We're linked Superman. I can hear everything you're thinking as clearly as if you were talking." Brainy sighed. "Be careful what you're thinking."

Superman jumped slightly in surprise and looked down. "Sorry Brainy." He said.

"It's okay." Brainy replied.

"What the heck is that?" Lightning Lad asked. At the same time the other group members thought it, resulting in a loud ringing in everyone's ears. The group had arrived at the line of trees. Beyond them was a small stream and hovering about a foot above the surface of the water was what looked like a blue jagged tear in the air. Swirling, pulsing, and humming.

"What?" Speed asked.

Yoom started glow a bright purple and pointed. "That tear looking thing!"

"No way!" Gantor whispered. "It's- it's- it's-"

"It's an unfound dimension portal!" cried Tor.

"Where does it go?" Alex asked.

Trish walked over to it. "That's why I brought you guys here." She said. "Let's see where it goes!"

"Sounds good! Let's do it!" Tor said. He joined the younger Trish in the water. It swirled around their ankles.

Alex looked slightly frightened at the prospect. "Just go through? What if we get lost? What if it closes? What if we end up in an undimensioned dimension?" He backed away. "Uh uh. This is a bad idea."

Tor sighed. "You're way to paranoid Alex. You always poke holes in great ideas."

"If it's a great idea I shouldn't be able to poke holes in it." Alex said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"That sounds just like you Brainy." Lightning Lad laughed. Everyone ignored him. "Touch-ee." He said.

"Come on Alex!" Trish said. "It'll be fun! You spend way too much time indoors as it is. Have an adventure for once! Besides, it might be even better on the other side. But we'll never know unless we do it. So let's just see what fate has in store." She beckoned to him.

Alex sighed. He was not getting out of this. "Fine. I'll do it. But if something bad happens it's your fault. Completely your fault."

Trish shrugged. "I can take that bet. What could happen?"

Very audibly the group could hear Trish's voice heave a deep sigh. "If only I knew…"

The three teens stood shoulder to shoulder: Tor on the right, Trish in the middle and Alex on the left. "Ready guys?" Tor asked. In response Trish grabbed the boys' hands.

"Ow!" Alex exclaimed. "That was real hard Trish! That's going to be permanent I know. I heard bone crack. Are you sure we should do this? That," he held up his left hand which had a bright red mark below the thumb, "isn't a good sign. I can't move it anymore."

Brainy shivered slightly. "That's why…" he whispered. Superman, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Phantom Girl looked inquisitively at him. Even though he had whispered it the members of the group could hear him clearly.

Gantor spoke, "Why what?"

Speed elbowed him in the stomach. When Gantor didn't flinch at all she rose up to his face and poked him in the eye. "Don't intrude you big oaf!" she said to him.

"I was just curious." Gantor whined.

"You need to figure out when to ask and when not to!" Speed commented.

"No, it's okay." Brainy said. "I've always noticed that when I get nervous or I feel like something bad is going to happen that part of my left hand starts to hurt. If I really _**am**_ this Alex," he laughed, "then it explains a lot."

"Come on Alex. Let's go! It will be an adventure. Weren't you _just_ saying that you never get to do anything?" Tor commented. "You know you want to!" He said in a singsong voice.

"And that-" Brainy said, "sounds just like you Lightning Lad." The group laughed at this.

"You just got Poned in the face." Superman laughed. When he saw the weird looks on their faces he explained, "That's what we said when someone makes fun of someone else because of something they say." They still looked confused. "Never mind. I guess it's a 21st century thing."

The group shrugged collectively. "Well…" Alex considered, totally oblivious to what was going on above him.

"That works for me!" Trish said. She grabbed Alex. "Ready?"

"Uh-" Alex started but Trish stopped him.

"Too bad! Through the portal, past the boundaries, yadda yadda here we come!" Trish leaped for the portal dragging Tor and the struggling Alex. Then all three of them screamed. It sounded like people on a roller coaster. Some voices were screaming in delight but one voice yelled out in extreme terror.

The ghosts felt a pull on their chests as they were sucked into the portal with them. The DAWIPA members laughed at the feeling of portaling. They were used to it. The Legion members screamed in terror. It felt like they were getting burned by fire and splashed with water at the same time: hot and cold, painful and relief at the same time, but as it started to become too much to handle it stopped. Everyone looked down at the ground where the three teenagers they followed had landed spread eagle on the ground.

Brainy gasped. "I know this place!" The others looked at the room they had landed in. It was made of shiny gray material. It looked like an operating room. On the tables were many sharp and painful looking instruments straight out of a horror film. Off to the right the room expanded into a large room filled with operating tables and smaller tables with the operating instruments on them. It was cold and gave everyone the chills.

"Of course you do." Trish's voice said. "This is the assimilating room on a Coluan ship. It's where they create more of their kind. Does it bring back unpleasant memories?" That last statement had a slight edge to it. Brainy nodded silently.

"Get off! Can't breathe!" Tor gasped. Trish got up and looked around.

"Where do you think we are?" she asked.

"Some type of operating room." Alex offered.

Trish walked to a table. "Looks messy." She commented.

Tor got up. "Do you think the things that live here are friendly?" He asked.

Alex opened his mouth and then dove under a table. "Hide! There's something coming!" The others obeyed his order.

Just as Tor got under the table the door opened. Two Coluans came into the room: one carrying a clipboard and the other looking around. Brainy gasped again and edged away from the front of the group. As if he was seeking protection from the bodies he put between himself and the other Coluans. "The Grand High Leader!" He breathed.

"Aren't there any suitable civilizations for the process?" the Grand High Leader asked.

"Not that I can find. We need a new resource. All small civilizations are too closely related with the United Planets to use." The Coluan with the clipboard answered.

The Grand High Leader walked next to the table where Tor, Trish, and Alex were hiding. He glanced down to the table, a sneaky grin creeped onto his face. "I think we can find a new resource soon."

The other Coluan shook his head. "That's illogical. Unless we can find a portal to another world that is not known by other beings, which is very unlikely, we won't be able-"

"We will be able to find a portal." The way the Grand High Leader delivered this line made the other Coluan stand up straighter and back up. To everyone's surprise Brainy straightened up a bit and flinched. He seemed to do it sub-consciously.

The Grand High Leader exited the room. The other stood in the room for a second. He looked around and shivered. "I don't know what it is about this place but it gives me the creeps." And with that he left the room as well. It was quiet in there for a few moments.

Then Alex's voice was heard. "They're gone."

"Do you think they saw us?" Tor asked, turning to Trish.

Trish shook her head. "I don't think so. But I figured out where we are. We're in the 3rd Dimension."

"Bet you're happy." Alex commented.

"Of course I am." Trish said back. "But it doesn't seem at all like the books described it. It's too… clean."

"We keep our operating rooms sterilized. Why shouldn't they?" Tor asked. "But what were they talking about? What kind of 'resource' are they looking for? And why do they need an out-of-the-way civilization?" He shook his head. "I don't like this place. Let's go."

"I agree it's not right. It feels bad." Alex rubbed his hand. "We should leave before they find us."

But the young Trish wasn't listening. She ran to a small window and looked out into empty space. "Wow. It's beautiful." She whispered. "Have you guys ever been in space before?" she sounded like a child looking at something she had never seen before."

Alex shook his head. "Trish you know there is not such thing as 'space travel'… at least not a ship _this_ big."

Tor joined Trish at the window too. "No way, this isn't possible." He breathed. "Alex come over here and look at this!" Alex came over grudgingly.

He glanced quickly at the stars twinkling outside the window. "Great. We can see stars. Now let's _**go**_." He went back to the portal they had come out of. "I'm leaving. This place is really getting my skin crawling. Goodbye!" and with that he jumped through the portal and was gone.

"Come on Trish. Alex is right. We better leave before those things come back." Tor said. He too walked over to the tear in the air. Trish didn't move. "I'm not leaving you here. Come on."

"Shh. Do you hear that?" the young Trish had her head cocked towards the door. "I think they are coming back."

Tor took another step to the portal. "Good, an even better reason for us to **leave**."

"I guess you're right." Trish sighed and joined Tor at the portal. "I don't like the look of those creatures anyway. I don't think we should let them see us." Tor nodded in agreement.

"Why are we going back? It doesn't seem logical." The voice of the Coluan from before, the one who was with the Grand High Leader, floated into the room.

Then the voice of the Grand High Leader pierced the room making Brainiac 5 flinch involuntary. "You do not need to know Ector 6. All you need to do is follow my instructions."

Tor put one foot in the portal. Trish gestured him on. "Go! I'll be right behind you. Hurry up!"

Tor disappeared from view. Trish stepped into the portal. Just before she got through it though the door opened and the Grand High Leader was standing there smiling at the young Trish with the other Coluan standing there open mouthed amazed at what he was seeing. Trish made eye contact with him for a second and disappeared into the portal.

The sickening feeling of portaling pulled the ghosts back to the river surrounded by trees. Alex and the young Tor were already walking back to the bank. "Took you long enough." Tor snorted. "They didn't see you did they?"

"No." Trish replied looking at the portal fearfully.

With that all three of them left the river and walked back to the city. "Trish," Tor's voice whispered quietly, "you told us they didn't see you…" Trish didn't answer. "You told us they didn't see you…" when Tor repeated this his voice almost disappeared and was full of regret.

The three teenagers parted at the clearing and the ghosts witnessed Alex and Trish walk to the wall and into a small house. Where they fell onto two beds and fell asleep. The ghosts looked around at each other. "We're skipping the sleep scene aren't we?" Yoom asked trying to sound cheerful. And true to this the stars and moon sunk into the horizon very quickly. Joe almost went after the stars but Gantor grabbed his collar and held him at bay.

Trish and Alex were sleeping peacefully as the sun rose over the wall. But the peace was shattered as an explosion ripped through the silent air, screams rose up and cries of terror. Trish and Alex sat bolt upright and ran outside. The beautiful city they had seen the night before was in total disarray and panic. Smoke rose up in columns above burning buildings. People ran this way and that trying to find an escape route. The walls had collapsed into a pile of rubble and twisted metal.

"Trish! What's going on?" Alex called out.

"I don't know!" Trish shouted over the din. A loud humming was heard and everyone quieted. Over the city a giant shadow spread. A ship was flying low overhead. The screams erupted and a mass of terrified women, screaming men, and crying babies ran collectively away from the ship and towards Trish and Alex. "Run!" Trish yelled. She and Alex ran to avoid being trampled. But the wave of flailing arms and rolling eyes overtook them and they were separated. "ALEX!" Trish yelled, reaching out a hand to her brother who was getting swept further and further away. The young Trish started running sideways and was soon beside the mob. She broke off into the trees.

Tor was already standing there panting. "It's those things from the portal!" He yelled, panicking. "They're here! Everyone is being taken into those ships! What's happening Trish?!? What's going on?!?" He stopped screaming for a moment and asked the next question calmly. "Where's Alex?" He asked.

"He got swept away with the mob. We've got to get him. And anyone else we can." Trish took charge and tried to remain calm. But her eyes were glassed over as if she was on an auto-pilot and inside she was screaming and panicking just like the mob.

The ship was getting closer and closer with every passing second. And now that it was closer Tor and Trish could see a silent green light radiating from the ship. Anyone that was too slow to escape from the ship was passed over with the light and fell to the ground. Behind the ship many smaller pods were teleporting the unconscious people up into the large ship. Tor spotted Alex on the edge of the crowd. He pointed at Trish and she nodded. She ran off to her brother.

Tor however walked calmly into the center of the crowd. He lifted his scythe off his back and planted it firmly into the ground. The mob parted around him, some calling to him telling him to run for his life, some just shaking their head at him, some even grabbed at his shirt sleeve to try to drag him along.

But Tor stood his ground, waiting for Trish. As he waited a girl came up to him. She had tan skin and dark brown hair. She would have looked normal if her face didn't look like it was pressed into the center and her eyes were entirely too small. They looked like embroidery beads. "Classeri!" He said.

"Tor what's going on? What are these things?" She asked.

"I don't know." Tor yelled in order to be heard. "Trish, Alex and I found a dimension portal and saw some of these things on the other side. I don't know how they got here."

"We have to get out of here Tor!" Classeri said. "I'm heading to the shelter with the others." She started to run off.

"Classeri! Wait! Don't go! You won't make it!" Tor's cries went unheeded.

Trish, meanwhile, had sprouted her wings and flew over to Alex. He grabbed her foot and she flew him back to where Tor was. "Tor! You have to attack that ship! I'll try to calm everyone down!" She flew up to the sky and started shouting. "LISTEN TO ME!" The mob quieted and stopped running. Millions of heads turned towards Trish as she floated above the crowd. "Don't be afraid! We can get back the people we lost if we work together! Our powers can defeat this foe! Just like the other enemies we have faced! Stand together! Don't be afraid! Fight for your homeland so you can stay in the place you love! Don't turn your back on everything our ancestors worked so hard to build! Beat them back! We can defeat anything as long as Yamista looks down on us! And he smiles on us today! Fight!" she raised her fist into the air, "WE CAN WIN!"

The people below stood and breathed for a moment or two soaking in the words. It seemed for a moment to work. But a voice full of panicked terror rang out over the uneasy quiet, "Don't listen to her! What in the 29th can we do against these things? Run for your lives! AHH!!!" This scream ignited the fuse of total chaos. The mob surged forward, driven by an instinct to survive and oblivious to all thoughts and common sense.

Trish flew back to the ground. "Well, that didn't work did it?" Tor said sarcastically. Trish glared at him. "Alright! I'm going!" Tor lifted his scythe out of the ground. The shaft started to glow red. The very air around him rippled as though it was around a blistering hot fire. "Leave this dimension! Go!" The scythe was swung around in a wild circle and a wave of red molten lava burst into the air. But the lava did no damage. Instead, the shields deflected the crude attack off to the side, incinerating some trees and houses.

"Tor stop!" Alex yelled. "We have to try to rescue all the people we can! Then we can regroup and… and save the others!" Alex clapped his hands together. A green and maroon circle appeared around his hands. He opened his arms and the circle grew larger. "I'll get as many as I can, you two go and get a pod ready. We have to get out of here." Alex sprouted his own wings and flew after the mob and the ships. Tor and Trish looked at each other. Then they jumped into the air, Tor sprouting his own brown leather wings, and flew off to the left.

The ghosts followed them until they arrived at an overgrown temple. Trish blasted a beam of teal light at the top. It opened to reveal a small ship. It was small compared to the Coluan ship but it easily could have had the Legion's cruiser inside of it. Tor flew down and into the ship. And within a couple seconds the engine revved up. Trish flew back the way they came and the ship followed. Alex was coming towards them as well. Beneath him he carried a small group of people in some sort of trance. "I couldn't get anyone else! They were too panicked." He explained. Then, he and his sister flew into the ship.

"Tor," Alex demanded, "put the ship on auto-pilot. We need to regroup." The others he had rescued were starting to stand up.

"They are from the 3rd dimension! I told you they were dangerous." One said.

"Where is everyone else?" Another called.

"Look!" Cried a small girl. She was pointing out the window down to the ground.

Alex ran over to the window to see what was distressing the girl so much. "Oh, Yamista's brethren of hell…" Beneath the ship the city could be clearly seen. Burning to the ground and completely destroyed. No one talked for a very long while. The rescued were holding each other and crying silently. Tor and Trish came over as well. Tor was just in time to see the city and forest burning and the city's skyline collapsing into dust.

Tor slammed his hand against the wall of the ship. "Goddamnit!" he yelled. "Yamista's forsaken blood! Against Mother God and Earth! Those Frigging Bastards! Our homes! Our city!" He shoved his way past a crying lady to the window. "Everything is gone… everything… Our dimension!" His eyes widened, "With this much damage… the imbalance of peace… our dimension might collapse. Yamista! Yamista what did we do that you punish us like this? Why do you turn your shining face away from us? What are we going to do? Those fucking bastards! I'll kill them myself and hand-deliver them to the Forsaken Brethren Deep in Hell! I'm going to kill all of the ignorant beings who ever had contact with that ship! I'll kill them all! I'll kill them!" Tor's eyes grew wider and started rolling back into his head. He grabbed behind him at the scythe on his back.

Trish grabbed his scythe before he could reach it. "You need to calm down." She said in a shaking voice.

"Trish do you understand what will happen? The dimension will collapse! We have to leave and get as far away from this dimension as possible! We won't be able to save anyone else! We lost! Yamista abandoned us! We're doomed!" Tor sank to his knees, tears flowing down his cheeks. "What do we do? What can we do?" he whimpered. His voice was choked with sobs.

Trish knelt down next to him. "We go on. If we escape we can find a way to save the others." Alex knelt down as well. The girl from the window curled next to him and he put his arm around her. "All of you. We need to get out of here before the internal core is demolished. Then we can find the ship and get the others back before they are hurt-"

"Or worse." A man added. Trish glared at him.

Tor was still shaking and crying though was calming down considerately. Alex stood up and walked to the pilot chair. Silently he typed some words into the computer. The computer screen flashed as he disengaged the autopilot. Alex sighed and drove the ship out of the atmosphere. "Brace yourself. We're portaling." A girl cried out in fear. Trish hugged her, trying to calm the girl and herself down. "Hold on. Get your last looks of this place. I can't promise that we will ever be able to come back. I don't promise anything…"

Tears now flowed freely down everyone's face. They looked out the window at the shrinking city. The Coluan ship was rising too. The destruction left behind it was terrible. Not a single building was left standing. No live thing moved in the dust or forest. The bodies of people too slow lay trampled and disfigured.

Tor and the rest could see the Coluan ship as it warped out of sight. As it disappeared a large tear appeared in the air. A blue jagged tear that pulsed and hummed. A dimension portal. Everyone knew what it was now. But now the sight was filled with a dread and fear. The portal no longer was a point of interest. Instead it was something no one wanted to ever see again.

Alex flew after the ship and through the portal. The feeling of portaling wasn't as bad this time. No one made a comment though. The silence that hung in the air seemed to smother and kill any thought except sheer shock. The scene outside the window changed to the black star-filled eternal night of space. There was a bright star in the distance like a small sun.

"Look at that star." Tor commanded. "Don't look away. Look and witness the end of our dimension. Or you'll regret it forever." The small, scared group turned to the star. As they looked on the star seemed to warp and twist. It shuddered and winked on and off. Finally, as though it was sighing, the star went out. There was no blast of light. No explosion. Nothing. The star was just gone. As though the night around it had swallowed it whole and covered the remains.

"What happened?" Speed asked. Everyone turned quickly around to face her. "What? I'm sorry to ruin the mood but I thought when a dimension collapsed there was a big explosion or something."

"Not really." Trish's voice was strained and afraid. "Our dimension was surrounding that star. That was the core. But with the sudden absence of life the balance in the core was disturbed too much. And our dimension collapsed."

Saturn Girl looked at Brainy. His face was frozen in shock. His mouth almost stretched into a silent scream. It was a warped, frightening look that you usually see only in nightmares. 'But this must be a nightmare.' She thought. And even though the others could hear her thoughts no one made a comment.

They turned their attention back to the figures on the ship. Everyone below was quiet. Alex was the first to speak. "Their ship is stopping. From the scanners I think this race is called the 'Coluans'. I can't get anything else from the mainframe. It's too well encrypted. But I have a lock on the others."

"Please save my husband!" Asked a woman near the corner. "I can't live without him!"

The small girl started to cry again, "I want my mommy!"

Tor hugged the girl tightly. "It's okay. We'll get your mother back. I promise. You're Classeri's (Class-er-ees) little sister aren't you?" The girl nodded. "We'll get her back too. We'll get everyone back.

"We're trying to do everything we can. But-" Trish stopped talking as the ship rocked wildly. "What happened Alex?" She yelled.

"They have us in a tractor beam!" Alex turned fearfully. "The thrusters aren't doing anything. I have them on at full power and it's not making a difference."

Tor looked at him. "I'm not letting them take me without a fight." He raised his scythe into a battle position and faced the door. "Who's with me?"

"Maybe we can reason with them." A man suggested. "They seem intelligent. I'm sure we can reason with them."

"Trust me." Tor replied. "They're made of metal or something. It's not right. We either fight or go willingly to whatever fate they have."

"Stop it." Trish said. "Alex, before they can board the tractor beam has to turn off. Before they can get on turn on the thrusters. If we time this right we might be able to get away from here."

Alex turned to the screen. "I'll try." Everyone watched the central screen. The Coluan ship came closer as the tractor beam brought them in. They were a few meters away when the pull of the tractor beam stopped.

"NOW!" Trish yelled. Alex pulled a lever down. The ship jerked roughly and started to move away. But a blue beam of light connected the side of their ship to the Coluans.

"No!" Alex started to pull levers and push buttons in a vain attempt to separate the two ships. On the main screen Coluans came through the beam and toward the ship. The women and girl started to cry and huddled together. The men who had been rescued formed a line between the door and the women.

"We've got to hold them off!" Tor shouted.

Something banged on the door. "Open the doors before we use force!" A voice called out. The Coluans banged on the door harder.

"Stand your ground!" Trish yelled. She lifted her hands into the air above her and started to form a green – blue protective barrier around the people on the ship. It only surrounded Tor and her but was steadily getting bigger. "Keep the door barred!" she said.

The cover she had created held but the door was forced open. The cover hadn't reached a few of the people. The girl Sarah, the woman holding her, another man and woman… and Alex. Trish tried to force the barrier to grow bigger but it was too late. The Coluans came in and quickly subdued the small band. They dragged the struggling Alex out of the door. Tor held Trish back to prevent her from going after them.

"They won't kill them right now. It would have been done by now." He whispered. "Besides we need a plan to get the rest of them back." Trish lowered her hands as the last Coluan left. "We'll get them all back. I promise."

"This is all my fault." Trish whispered.

Tor looked at her angrily. "You can moan and groan about that after we get the rest back."

"You're right." Trish angrily shook her head. "Let's go."

Tor and Trish tip-toed out of their ship. They could just hear Alex as he was taken away. Tor nodded at Trish and they followed Alex's voice. "Let go of me! Don't make me hurt you! Hey-yah!" There was a sound of flesh contacting hard with metal. "OW!" Alex cried. "What are you made of? Rock?"

Another voice grunted. Everyone assumed it was the Coluan that had Alex. "Be quiet." It commanded.

"NO!" Alex yelled. Trish and Tor came around the corner and saw Alex and the others disappear into the operating-like room.

"Oh no." Trish whispered. "We have to stop them!" Tor didn't answer. He gripped his scythe more tightly.

Two Coluans came out the door. "Why do you think the Grand High Leader had us do that?" one asked. The other shrugged. Thankfully they turned to the left instead of the right. So Trish and Tor were not noticed.

Trish gestured to Tor and they walked up to the door. Trish nodded and Tor sliced at the door. It opened. Inside the room they saw the others. But there was something wrong. Something _very __**very**_ wrong.

Everyone was now metallic. Their skin had been changed to the same green of the Coluans' skin. Their eyes now held two colors and stared blankly up at the ceiling. The room looked, if possible, even larger. Every table had a body on it. And every body looked strange and defiled somehow. Trish was the furthest in the room. Her form swayed sideways dangerously. But she caught herself before gravity took over.

Trish walked silently, as if in a trance, to one of the tables. On it laid a woman. Up close, you could clearly see why her skin looked green. Tiny green machines were attaching themselves to her skin, every once in awhile the woman made an involuntary jerk and slight moan of pain. But she was unconscious. The machines made quiet clicking noises and buzzed slightly. Trish bent down for a closer look. She could see small bumps moving underneath the skin. But what drew her attention was the woman's forehead. There were thousands of bumps moving around and vibrating. Something must have been under the skin, on the skull, and most likely in the brain. Trish leaned closer. Then the tiny machines burst through the skin and poured out like blood. Trish gasped. Bits of pinkish material were stuck to each of the machines. A pile started to grow on the woman's neck as the machines dropped their load and returned to the hole.

By now Tor had joined her at the table. "That's Mrs. Licpow… (Lick-pow)" he said incredulously. "What are those things doing to her?"

Trish bent down again and looked even closer at the exposed brain. "I think they are removing her memories. That part of the brain holds memories and that's what these machines are removing." She shuddered.

Tor looked at Trish and back at Mrs. Licpow. "We've got to help her." He said. But he made no move. "We've got to do something. Something… Anything…"

Trish put her hand on his arm. "I don't think we can do anything. We could hurt her more. These machines look like they know what they're doing." Tor started to shake. "I don't know what they are doing. But if we stop them now it might be worse than whatever those Coluan's are planning. We need to find anyone we can move and save." Tor looked at Trish with pure hate in his eyes. "It's hard I know, but saving one life for sure is better than saving another that could die any moment. She would save the same thing. Look Tor, I know how much she means to you. I know she's the closest thing you have to a mother but we need to find anyone we can actually save. We're running out of time! Come on."

With that she ran off down the aisles looking at each person. Tor took one last look at Mrs. Licpow and joined the search for survivors. "Oh no." Trish whispered. "It's Sarah." Sarah, the small girl from the ship looked the same as Mrs. Lipcow. Trish forced herself to move on. She and Tor had only reached a quarter of the beds when they heard approaching footsteps. They ducked beneath the nearest two beds before the persons entering saw them.

The Grand High Leader entered followed by the one called 'Ector 6'. Trish and Tor didn't even bother to look out. They were petrified with fear, along with the ghosts floating above them. Lightning Lad, Superman, Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl, Speed, Yoom, Gantor, Joe, and Brainy watched apprehensively as the Grand High Leader walked towards Mrs. Licpow.

The Grand High Leader had a strange expression etched on his face. A very unnerving smile was stretched over his features. One that told of a mad brilliance behind the cool calculating face. "This is working even better than I expected." He said quietly.

Ector 6 looked at Mrs. Licpow as she gave another involuntary shudder. "What are we doing?"

"We are saving her life." The Grand High Leader answered. "It's for the best. Now go and report to the others that we will soon have replacements for the ones lost last year." Ector 6 hesitated. He looked scared as though seeing a movie that he knew held and unhappy and gruesome end. "GO!" Ector 6 left to carry out the orders commanded.

The Grand High Leader stepped to the small table next to Mrs. Licpow. The table held the shiny steel instruments Trish and Tor had seen before. No one dared to breathe. Not even the ghosts, though they knew perfectly well that no matter what they did it wouldn't change a thing.

Every living thing in the room watched in horror as the Grand High Leader put his hand on Mrs. Lipcow's forehead. Small green tentacle like things sprouted from his hand and embedded themselves into her forehead. As they watched small ridges could be seen popping up underneath her skin and stretching to the rest of her body.

Suddenly the green tentacle things exploded from her skin and twined around Mrs. Lipcow's arms, legs, torso, and head. Soon nothing could be seen but twisting, writhing, green wires. Small spurts of blood came out between the wires. You could just barely hear the low tortured moans from inside the wires.

The Grand High Leader ripped his hand away, smiling evilly. He moved on to the next bed and the next person. What used to be Mrs. Lipcow now looked like a pile of junk left to rot. The twisting wires were now stained with blood and twisted and dug into the skin relentlessly.

Everyone's eyes were practically falling out of their heads. But still the scene unfolding below was too horrible to speak of. And they knew this scene would stay etched in their minds for the rest of their lives. No matter how they wanted to rid themselves of it.

Tor and Trish made a quick dash out of the room and away from the terrible scene. As they turned a corner they ran into something. Tor looked up with tears in his eyes at the Coluan they had run into.

The Coluan looked like the rest of them except for its eyes. They were entirely too small, like embroidery beads. "Classeri?" Tor asked incredulously.

The Coluan blinked. "I do not know you."

"Yes you do!" Tor yelled. "Classeri it's me! Tor! Tor Cylix!"

The Coluan narrowed its tiny eyes. "Why do you seem so familiar?"

Tor didn't answer. He grabbed the Coluan's arm, jumped up and punched it hard in the neck.

"What are you doing?" Trish asked.

"This is Classeri. I don't know what they did to her but we need to try to save her. It has to be reversed! Whatever they did to Mrs. Lipcow they did to Classeri." He started to drag the unconscious Coluan to the docking bay where their ship was. "Help me out here."

Trish complied. In about two minutes they were out of the Coluan ship and flying off into the black night sky. The Coluan started to moan and sat up. It looked around and blinked several times. It lifted its hand to its head and rubbed it. "I remember this place…" it whispered.

Tor left his place from the helm. "Classeri do you remember me?"

"Yes." The Coluan said staring at Tor. "Tor what happened to me? Why am I like this? What happened to me Tor? What happened?"

Tor grabbed Classeri's shoulders. "I don't know. I don't know Classeri. But Trish can reverse it. Can't you?" he turned to her hopefully.

Trish bent her head down. "I-"

Classeri's face broke in terror. "I don't want to stay like this Trish." She said almost pleadingly. "I don't want to stay like this. I don't feel anything. I can tell now that's its all a simulation. The nerves, the sight, everything is fake. Don't make me stay like this Trish!" She jumped from the chair she was in and grabbed Trish. "Don't make me stay like this!"

"I'll try." Trish gently lifted Classeri's arms off her and sat Classeri down. "I'll try. But I can't promise you anything. It might make you even worse. Are you sure you want me to?"

"Yes." Classeri whimpered. "These sham emotions… they're killing me Trish," She bent down and grabbed her knees in terror and grief. "They're killing me."

Trish opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. "I'll try." She said more confidently. There's an unpopulated planet nearby, I'll do it there."

The 'ghosts' were stunned. Everything was happening so fast. No one spoke. No one looked around. All eyes were fixated on the three figures below. The air around them was crackling with feelings of terror, fear, and incredible grief.

They watched as Trish and Tor landed the ship and set up a make shift operating table. Classeri laid down on it as Tor and Trish bowed their heads in prayer. Suddenly the scene below went dark. A silhouette of Trish standing defeated over a table was seen.

Trish's voice was heard. "It failed. Classeri died that day at my hand."

There was a giant jolt as everyone lifted their heads from the table. It was like waking up from a nightmare. Once again there was no noise. Even Joe was panting silently. Tor slumped down into a chair in a daze. Trish was still standing there. Her fists were clenched and the knuckles were white. There was a line of where tears had flowed earlier.

Superman, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Yoom, Gantor, Speed, Phantom Girl, and Joe glanced at Brainy. His head was bent down. You couldn't see his eyes and his mouth was a flat line. The only thing you could see that showed any emotions was a very thin line of tears on his cheeks. Both Superman and Saturn Girl wanted to say something to him but before they could Brainy stood up from the table and ran out of the room. Tears were still rolling down his cheeks.

Superman tried to speak but Saturn Girl reached across the table and put a hand on his arm. She didn't say anything. But Superman knew what she meant. Brainiac 5 had never cried. Never. Not even when he had gotten his arm blown off. If _he_ was crying… If _Brainiac _5 had tears flowing down his cheeks… Then it was very bad, very bad indeed.

And tears were flowing down his cheeks.

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**There! I finally finished! That took so long. I don't know when I will get the next chapter up… I'll try to get it up soon. And by soon I mean by the end of the school year… (May)**


	6. Events

**That last chapter was really long wasn't it? But I don't think it will get much shorter. I'll try but no promises. I've small chatted enough – now for the disclaimer; I don't own Legion of Super Heroes. Well… maybe I did in another life… but not this one. Darn.**

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**Events**

What do you do when all you know is thrown into chaos? What do you do when your life is shattered? What do you do when you suddenly have a past? What do you do when you suddenly become, truly alive?

These thoughts filled Brainiac 5's head as he stumbled blindly through the night. He ran far away from his friends and his team. He ran as fast as he could- not even stopping long enough to think of turning on his flight-ring. He just ran. Pure instinct guided him through the crowds of people. The urchins of the city were out now… taking refuge under the starry night sky. Lowlifes of every kind: those suffering from lack of food, craving addictions, and who knows what else were walking the streets – pale as ghosts, thin as rails… pretending that they were accepted in the real world, at least for the night… But none of them paid attention to the small android as he ran from the tall skin covered building that spiked into the sky.

Brainy ran blindly, realizing vaguely that no one was coming after him. What could Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, or Superman say? Even Saturn Girl who was really good at this kind of thing wouldn't know what to say… not that he had a very good relationship with any of them but still… he _had_ been working with them for a couple years. None of the DAWIPA would try to come after him either; they didn't know him after all. And as for Trish, he knew she would not come after him. His sister had always felt people had to grasp things themselves…

Brainy stopped running abruptly. 'My sister.' The thought slammed into him like a ton of bricks. A sister. A _family_. 'I have… a family?' This was one of the things Brainiac 5 had always envied about other civilizations. Coluans didn't have families, only the Collective. Isn't this what he always dreamed of? Something that truly separated him from the Coluans? He finally had a sister- a family- a history even! And he was running from it was fast as he could. "Yeah. That makes sense." Brainy said sarcastically to himself, scaring off a couple of teenagers that were hiding in the bushes. How he had scared them, he had no idea. They were after all much taller than he was. 'Well, that's the _great_ Coluan reputation following me.'

Brainy looked around him to find that his feet had carried him into a quiet densely forested city park. He lay down on a park bench and stared at the sky. He sighed. Everything was so messed up. Even the sky was messed up. None of the starslooked familiar. He closed his eyes, trying to think. There was a slight breeze that rustled the leaves above him.

"Ok Brainy. You have a 12th level intelligence. You should be able to think of something. What are you going to do?" He said to himself. Brainy sighed. "I have a sister. I am not Coluan, I am Eastlandian." Brainy stopped. It didn't sound right. He opened his eyes. It was much harder to take it all in that he thought. "Arrrrgh!" He clapped his hands to his forehead. "Why did I stay and listen? And why can't I think about it rationally? And why am I talking to myself?" He said to no one in particular.

'Because, you never knew yourself and now you're a different person.' Said a voice in his head.

Brainy dropped his hands and straightened up and looked around. He had never heard voices in his head. Sure he thought about stuff but never like this. It was like there a small person talking into his ear. No- a small person talking from _inside_ his ear. 'This must be- like the conscience humans are always talking about.' He thought.

'Well, not exactly, but I'm glad you finally notice me!' Said the voice. 'It's been waaaay too hard to get through all that Coluan wiring they put in your head.'

"Huh?" Brainy looked around. There was no way in heaven his… conscience was talking like this. No. It must be someone in the bushes or something. He was not hearing voices. He was not losing his mind.

'Yeah. A conscience does not talk like this. But, you're not losing your mind. I sitting in it after all.' The voice said.

Brainy just sat on the bench with his mouth open. He couldn't believe this. "No- I'm losing it. That must be the answer. Yeah. I'll wake up tomorrow, at headquarters, to find this was all a dream- yeah. Trish, no that girl, went through the portal and I got caught in the radiation and was knocked out."

'You don't actually believe that do you?' The voice said. 'Hmmm… how can I make this easier? Oh! I got it! Hang on a minute.' Brainy heard something rattling in his head and a few sparks flew out of his right ear.

"Ow!" Brainy clapped a hand to his ear. It felt as though someone was ripping through his internal wiring. Then some wire went loose causing his arm to fall to his side. "Ow." He said again, more annoyed than hurt. "What are you doing in there?"

The voice in his ear laughed nervously. 'Oops. Wrong wire. But now there's a way out!'

"What are you talking about?" Brainy asked. But no sooner had he spoken these words than he saw a green maroon mist pouring out of his ear. The same color he had just seen Alex use in the memory.

The mist moved against the slight breeze to hover in front of Brainy. As it did it slowly formed itself into an off color version of Alex from the memory. 'Cool. So this is what I look like.' It said, looking Brainiac 5 up and down.

Brainy stared at the mist-Alex without speaking. "Oh my God."

**---:::'''.,.,.,.''':::---**

No one had moved after Brainiac 5 had run out of the room. It was dead quiet again. The room was so tense a complete stranger could have walked in and understood what happened. It took about a minute for everything to sink in. Then Tor whipped around to face Trish. "You told me they didn't see you." He said in a dangerously low whisper. "You said nothing would happen." These words were even quieter.

The DAWIPA team members inched their chairs away from Tor. Joe ran under the table and whimpered. Yoom zoomed behind Superman. Speed grabbed onto a disgusted and totally bewildered Lightning Lad. Saturn Girl and Phantom Girl looked from Tor to Trish to the DAWIPA team not knowing what to do. Gantor looked at the others nervously, mouthing 'He's gonna blow!' at the Legion. But it did no good. Tor had already lost it.

Tor could not contain his rage at Trish any longer. He erupted like a monstrous volcano. Spewing spit and strange words none of them had heard before like rocks and ash. 'HASTO JAK GETIR LASD OVI VISNT SJKE WIQUKEL?" (Has-toe jack geh-tier las-did cov-ee vis-nit si-jack-ay wick-quilk?) He screamed. "IAALKTHISJE OCM EEJ WOHT CIEJKNS! TJIEMD ITJKS IWNODK WIKSMEO!" (Eye-ack-all this-ja ah-qu-em ee-juh wo-hunt cy-jeek-uns! Ty-jemd it-jakes eye-wone-duh-k wik-si-me-oh!)

Trish stared back at him, clearly hurt. "JEOK LDUY SKOIE THIJ SKOEHINQ UFDKJEPC THIJ HU? THCOM GESC BANDFJE OWPNC ITKJSN ITJSD!" (Gee-oak lud-see suck-o-kie thi-juh suck-ooh-eh-hind-kee u-fud-kjec-pes thi-juh hoo? Thigh-coom gesk ban-def-jay own-pink it-ku-sons ith-jes-tuh!)

"HISJOE HIKN WIHNDS ASKL TKJSL HIEKNC!" (His-joo-ee hike-in winds-high ass-kill tuck-sell hee-kick-nick!) Tor screamed spit flying everywhere.

Trish responded in more unintelligible words. The two were screaming at each other like banshees. Spit was flying everywhere. The others were slowly rising from their chairs and heading towards the door. Trying as hard as possible to not draw attention to themselves. The Legion members followed suit. Trish and Tor's voices rose to even louder shouts of rage. Everyone else was almost at the door when Tor drew his scythe. Trish's wings burst out of her back and a long silver pole appeared in her hands. Teal bolts of electricity crackled around her. Tor's wings appeared and pointed to the sky. No one moved. Speed was at the door with her hands raised to open it. Superman's mouth was hanging slightly open. He had never seen anyone fight like this.

"Isticso hyta gomeita osoku." (Is-tick-so high-tah go-meh-eeta oh-so-koo.) Tor spat.

Trish pointed the pole at Tor's face. "Oh, danger. Yehi jetrs nuhcrs potkesu estaca." (Yeh-high jet-rus nuh-crus pot-kess-oo es-tah-ka.)

"Jeksh wokej higs!" (Jeck-she woke-jay higs!) Tor shouted.

"Higs?" (Higs?) Trish shouted back. "High mahie thsoc _Tor Cylix_!" (Higs may-high-ee t-sock tore cy-licks!)

Tor's eyes narrowed. Trish's hands gripped the pole more tightly. Superman blinked and they were gone. Superman looked up at the ceiling to see the two flashes of light shooting around hitting each other and spouting smaller streams of light at the other.

"We'd better get out of here." Whispered Yoom. "No one's safe."

"Why?" Asked Lightning Lad.

"Because…" Speed started. She silently pointed to the two streams of light ricocheting off the walls. Large dents were appearing.

"Let's get out of here!" Yelled Gantor. Speed opened the door as everyone ran out with her. The Legion however, didn't move.

"What are you doing?" Said Yoom. She flitted back in and tugged on Superman's sleeve. "Come on!"

Superman shook his head. "Can't we do something? They're destroying everything." As if on cue, Tor was slammed against a screen to the left. There was a loud sound of breaking glass. Tor fell to the ground, the shards sparkling like snow. One piece brushed against his cheek leaving a trail of red. He pushed himself off the floor with a growl and flew off to where Trish was hovering.

"That's our cue." Gantor reached in and grabbed Lightning Lad and Superman in one hand and Phantom Girl and Saturn Girl in the other. Yoom grabbed onto Superman's hair and was dragged out of the room. Speed hurridly closed the door. She leaned against it and heaved a sigh.

There was a loud bang as Speed leapt away from the door. A large bump had appeared where Trish, or Tor, or possibly a large and expensive piece of machinery had slammed into it. They could sill hear random incomprehensible screams from the two battling Eastlandians.

"Mm-hmm. Let's go oin here." Gantor said. He pointed to another door a little ways down the hall. He walked to it, still clutching the struggling Legion members in his hands. Speed got to the door first and opened it. Everyone entered quickly and quietly. After everyone was safely inside Speed slammed the door shut and, leaning against it, heaved a deep sigh.

"I hate it when this happens." Yoom commented, untangling herself from Superman's hair.

Lightning Lad looked up. "This had happened before." He stated incredulously.

Yoom shrugged her tiny shoulders, "Well, yeah. According to them – Eastlandians are really vicious."

"Yep." Speed laughed. "It's one of those species you don't want to get angry."

Saturn Girl raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"You saw them fight earlier against the Megs?" Yoom asked. They nodded.

"Well, that's probable about a quarter of their total strength." Gantor supplied matter-of-factly. There was another loud bang as something or someone slammed on the wall across the hallway. "Now, I'd say this is about a third…" He shuddered. "They're out of the main room. This _is_ the door they can't get through right?"

Speed looked the door up and down. "I think so."

"Two of your teammates are off trying to rip each other apart and you're worried about a door?" Lightning Lad shouted.

"Yep." Speed said – still facing the door.

"But-" Superman started.

"But nothing." Said a low-gravelly voice.

The Legion looked around from their vantage point in Gantor's hands for the new arrival. "Who was that?" asked Saturn Girl.

"How dumb are thirds?" Said the voice. The DAWIPA giggled.

"Oh, Joe, shut up." Said Yoom, not laughing.

"Joe?" Superman asked.

"Yeah?" Said the liger. "I can talk… it's just hard."

Speed chuckled. "He was a regular liger but now he has a voice. But he doesn't like to use it. Claims it hurts."

Joe shrugged his hairy shoulders. He walked calmly over to lie by a vent on the floor. "It doesn't matter if they want to fight." He took a deep breath. "They started the group, they're the leaders. Let them kill each other if they want to."

"Oh, so you can become the leader?" Said Yoom exasperatedly. "You've gotta give that up already." Joe didn't respond to this statement, unless you count panting as a response.

Lightning Lad was not impressed by this exchange. "We should be doing something! Calming them down, or finding Brainy, or something." The room went quiet again at the mention of the android.

Speed recovered quickly and walked, slowly and deliberately, to stand directly in front of Lightning Lad. "Look, Trish and Tor both have told us about Eastlandians. Their wars literally turn the ground red and it leaks into the dimensions below it. 'Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning?' That's bloodshed from an Eastlandian battle and it's a warning of what war does. When an Eastlandian gets angry- it doesn't matter if you're a friend, foe, family member, or anything else. If you get in the way of an angry Eastlandian – may whatever god you worship have mercy on your soul." Lightning Lad gaped at her. "Now then," she said turning to the rest of the group, "Who's hungry? I think there are some sandwich fixins' in the fridge."

Lightning Lad's eyes grew to an incredible size and he started to speak. "It's the way we work." Yoom said quickly, preventing any more strained speeches.

Lightning Lad couldn't take any more. "Work? We're sitting here making sandwiches while the others are killing each other and gone who knows where!"

"But think about it Lightning Lad." Saturn Girl put her hand on his shoulder. "Would you want people to be around you if you found out-" her voice faltered, "What Brainy did?" She asked quietly.

Speed shook her head. "I don't believe it. I knew Trish and Tor didn't have any family and something really bad had happened, but I never thought it was something like that."

Gantor shuddered. "No wonder they seem so involved with DAWIPA."

"Guys, we can't just sit here." Phantom Girl said. "I don't think it's a good idea to leave Brainy alone. Even if he would rather be by himself it's not safe. Especially in a big city like this."

Saturn Girl nodded. But that was all the reaction Phantom Girl got. She looked at Lightning Lad – waiting for an order. But he just crossed his arms over his chest and looked down. Phantom Girl looked to Superman, then to Saturn Girl hoping someone would take charge. No one did.

'I can't just sit here waiting for someone to do something.' She thought. 'But why won't someone do something? Someone take charge!' She silently willed. 'Someone… anyone…. Come on!' But her silent pleas went as unheeded at a gnat sneezing. "Ok fine!" She shouted. Everyone turned to look at her. "I'm going to find Brainy. It's not a good idea to leave someone who just found out a life-changing secret alone in a strange city in a different dimension. Saturn Girl – you come with me you can sense his brain waves. Lightning Lad, Superman you stay here in case he comes back. While you wait you can help them do whatever. And you-" she stood up and turned to the DAWIPA who were sitting at the table making sandwiches smirking at her, "I can't tell you to do anything but you should try to calm Trish and Tor down," she shrugged, through her hands into the air, "You can do whatever the heck you want!"

No one moved. Superman had a quizzical look on his face and Lightning Lad had his mouth open.

Phantom Girl shook her head and sat back down. "Sorry." She muttered.

"What are you talking about?" asked Saturn Girl. "That's a good plan. I'm with you- let's go."

"Well you're not going into this city at night without a guide. I'm coming too!" Yoom said. She flew towards them and perched on Saturn Girl's shoulder. Yoom pointed one slender finger to the door. "To the door!"

**---:::'''.,.,.,.''':::---**

Brainiac 5 continued to stare at the mist-Alex in front of him. "Oh my God." He said again.

'That much of a shock huh?' asked Alex. Brainy nodded. 'I would probably react the same way. Wait,' Alex shook his head and shrugged, 'technically I am acting the same way… Since I'm you before and you're me after… Oh!' He clapped his hand to his head, 'This makes my brain hurt!' Brainiac 5 stayed silent – his mouth still open in shock. 'Of course it should be making your head hurt too…' Alex said, ignoring the silent android. 'With everything in your head always clicking and whirring about. This must be mind blowing.' He chuckled nervously. 'Yeah… nothing like learning something truly awful about your race to shatter every memory and though you hold dear.' Alex smiled genially at him. 'Heh heh… heh…' he groaned. 'Come on! Say something! Did I kill you or something? Huh?' He snapped his fingers in Brainy's face. 'Helllloooooooo in there!' Alex waved his hand in front of Brainy. 'Respond already dammit!' With that surprising line he smacked the shocked android across the face knocking him off the bench.

This seemed to be exactly what he needed. Brainy blinked a few times from his new place on the ground. He opened his mouth. No sound came out. He cleared his rather dry throat and spoke shakily, "Who are you?"

Alex stared at him like he was an idiot. 'I'm you. Well, almost. You used to be me – but after the assimilation you just developed without me. While I was sealed in the last true cell in your mind.'

"True cell?"

'The only one that remained organic – not Coluan made.'

"Oh." Brainy mulled this over in his head.

'Bet you feel like the Germans after they found out about the Holocaust thing.' Alex offered a hand. Brainy took it. They both sat down on the bench. Alex leaned back– completely at ease.

"What?" Brainy looked over at the mist-like figure next to him.

Alex laughed. 'The Holocaust. Most of the German people did not know about hoe the Nazi's were killing the Jews and Gypsies until it really increased to a terrifying level. When they found out – well I'm guessing it's like how you feel.'

Brainy stared at him. "How do you know about that stuff? I thought you and Trish were from the 27th Dimension."

Alex laughed. 'Oh, well my sister was obsessed with the 3rd Dimension. She loved all the governments – claimed they were much better than ours – less casualties I think.'

"Huh?"

'Our 'beautiful home' wasn't as peaceful as the memory lead you to believe. We had so many problems…' Alex's words trailed off into nothing.

Brainy looked away from Alex. He leaned back as well and looked at the stars.

'I don't recognize any constellations.' Alex commented.

"Neither do I." Brainy said. Alex grunted. Brainy's eyes slid over to the mist beside him. 'Did I really look like that?' The android had often thought about what he would look like if he were something other than a Coluan. Never had he thought that he could look like that… Brainy could see through Alex to the bench, he still looked so strong, calm… able. Brainy's eyes snapped back to the unfamiliar stars. 'There is no way that I could have looked like that. No way.'

Alex looked over to Brainy. 'I turned into that? He's so small… hmmm…' He thought. 'I can't believe it.' He said aloud.

Brainy continued to stare at the stars determinedly. "Can't believe what?"

'Well think about it… No offense meant, but how on Eastlandia did I turn into you?'

"Eastlandia?" Asked Brainy confused.

'You said 'Earth' well my planet is Eastlandia.'

Brainy grunted.

'No offense.'

"None taken. Actually I can't figure out how I could have ever been you."

Alex snorted. 'Wonderful, we're incarnations of the same person – and we have nothing in common.' He laughed again.

Brainy laughed too. It wasn't something he usually did but he felt so calm and relaxed around Alex. Maybe he was finally losing it…

'Are Trish and Tor still around?' Alex asked tentatively. 'Or do you not know who I'm-'

"They're here." Brainy interrupted. "Back at headquarters."

'Headquarters?' Now it was Alex's turn to be confused.

"For the DAWIPA."

Alex smirked. 'They finally got that going huh?'

"What do you mean?"

'Well the governments of the dimensioned dimensions always wanted an inter-dimensional group to help out. I guess Trish finally got it going.'

"Hmm."

Alex looked over to Brainy. 'So why are you out here?'

"Don't you know?" Brainy asked, slightly irritated.

'No. I was inside your head- that doesn't mean I was in your mind.'

Brainy sighed, he wasn't sure he wanted to tell Alex. "I needed to think."

Alex looked sideways at Brainy. 'I guess I can take that as an answer. Are you done thinking?'

"Not really. But I should get back to my friends. They'll be worried."

'Cause you're the youngest?'

"Yeah, but how did you know that?" Brainy asked suspiciously.

Alex smiled at him. 'You're really short.' He commented.

Brainy opened his mouth to retort but stopped. "True." He admitted.

Alex reached over his hand and ruffled Brainy's hair. 'You're funny.' He said. Brainy had the curious sensation of something cold and slimy sitting on the top of his head. 'If you're don't let's go.' He stood up. 'Which way is it?'

Brainy looked around for the first time since he had sat down. "Uhh… that could be a problem."

Alex looked down at him. 'Let me guess you were walking without watching where you were going and now you have no idea how to get back.' Brainy nodded. 'Ok… we won't get anywhere just sitting- so let's just start walking and see where we end up.'

Brainy stood up to follow. "I'm pretty sure we came from that way." He pointed down a path to the right.

'Great! So tell me about your friends.' Alex said as they started walking. 'Considering you know all about me you really should return the favor.'

**---:::'''.,.,.,.''':::---**

Phantom Girl, Saturn Girl and Yoom had been walking for a long time. They had been wandering the park looking for the android while Yoom had been gently napping on Saturn Girl's shoulder.

"We've been walking for and hour now! You'd think we'd have found something by now." Phantom Girl said. She phased through a rather large tree to peer at the other side, "Brainy! Where are you?" She snapped.

Yoom was startled slightly at the yell, started to fall and grabbed onto Saturn Girl's earring.

"Ouch!" Saturn Girl shook her heads lightly to dislodge Yoom.

"Calm down Miss Pink!" Yom stretched and yawned. "So where are we?"

"You mean you don't know where we are?" Saturn Girl said.

"Nope. But it looks like the park." Yoom said. At that moment two teenagers ran out from behind a nearby clump of bushes. Their hair was mussed and leaves were clinging to their clothes and hair. The guy's shirt was buttoned weird and the girl's shirt was on backward. The man grabbed the girl by the waist and, both giggling, ran down the path and out of sight. "Yep defiantly the park." Yoom shuddered.

Phantom Girl wrinkled her nose. "Well, which way should we go?"

"He's your friend PG." Yoom said. "How am I supposed to know what the little green guy would do?"

Phantom Girl looked around her. "Let's go that way." She said, pointing to the path going right.

"Why?" Asked Saturn Girl.

"Because I said so." Phantom Girl said.

"That's as good a reason as any." Saturn Girl agreed.

"Alright." Yoom shrugged. "Can't really get any more lost than we already are."

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**Yay! I have started writing again! The computer is cleared of bugs and now the next chapter is being started. Wish me luck! Hopefully I can get back into the groove of writing. Please read and review! Thanks for staying loyal!**


	7. Explosion

That last chapter was really long wasn't it

**I won't bore you with too much chatting here's the disclaimer; I don't own Legion of Superheroes. SO THERE! But about the next chapter… Ahh, the next chapter. I'm sorry I haven't been updating. I'm really trying hard to get back into the swing of writing. Don't worry, I'll be faster!**

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**Explosion**

Meanwhile, back at the tower, Lightning Lad was starting to go completely stir-crazy. "Can we leave yet?"

"Nope." Gantor said. He placed one of his large hands on Lightning Lad's shoulder and pushed him back down.

"Phantom Girl, Saturn Girl and that 'cartoon' girl left."

"Yoom." Speed said. "But, they left as ghosts and a piece of rubble. Can you do that? Or have any other way to get out without attracting the attention of those two?" She jerked her thumb at the door. Another loud crash was heard in the hall outside where Trish and Tor were still duking it out. The conversation stopped. A sudden burst of light and a loud scream erupted. Tor's face appeared in the door as a large dent. He had hit it so hard; you could see all the details of his face. From the surprised and slightly pained expression on his face, to the small lines that traced his forehead.

Gantor and Speed stared at the face portrait. From outside, Trish's laughter could be heard. There was a loud 'pop' as Tor pulled himself free of the dent. Speed walked up to it. "I'm saving this." She said. "This is too funny!"

The crashes and random Eastlandian speech faded slightly as Tor and Trish fought their way past the kitchen where Lightning Lad was losing it.

He sat down with a 'flump' and stared evilly at the door. Superman cautiously spoke, "It's okay. Don't go nuts on us." This statement was met with a glare. "Never mind then." Said Superman.

Joe, who had been lying on the vent quietly suddenly looked up. "Hey, they're done!" He barked in his gravelly voice.

The door was rudely shoved open and a rather beaten down Trish and Tor entered. Trish was sporting a great black eye and several bruises speckled her face. Her shirt was ripped and covered in dust. Tor looked even worse. His shoulder pads were disheveled, his shirt was almost turned to rags, and his left arm was hanging at a very awkward angle. He gripped this above the elbow with his right hand. Tor was sporting two black eyes and his face was turning purple from, the others thought, the face plant in the door.

They walked in unsteadily, giving each other warning looks. "You done?" Gantor asked.

"Yes." Trish said. "We're done."

Speed smiled. "Good! I was wondering how long it would take until you destroyed the entire tower."

Tor smiled. Then grimaced as the movement stretched the sore muscles too tight. "Ow."

Speed laughed. And soon the whole group had joined in, except Trish and Tor who were too worn out to smile. It wasn't a laugh of amusement, as you would think, but rather a release of anxiety.

**--:'''.,.,.,.''':--**

Alex and Brainy had been walking for a long time, each of them sharing stories about themselves. Alex telling Brainy about all the crazy things he and Trish had done and Brainy, in turn, telling Alex about his team. For Brainy this was something amazing. He never talked like this to anyone. Alex made him feel safe – and he felt that he could tell Alex anything. Brainy found himself speaking avidly about every single thing that bothered him – from his teammates ignorance about (to him at least) everything to the fact of being a descendant of the ones who had destroyed the planet Krypton and at the same time being friends with the last Kryptonian who didn't know about it.

Alex listened and did not interrupt. He didn't even try to give advice. Alex seemed to know that this Coluan just wanted to speak and be heard.

Brainy had just finished explaining, at Alex's request, where and what the Coluan race was doing when he spotted the tower coming up on the left. "There it is." He said. But as he said it he noticed the tower looked very strange.

Alex didn't notice Brainy's hesitation and walked up to the door, his ghostly feet off the ground about three centimeters. 'How do we open it?'

Brainiac 5 shrugged. "I was hoping you would know."

Alex looked at him strangely. 'And why would that be?'

He shrugged again. "I don't know." As he said this, he looked around and spotted a hole in the wall. "But that way looks as good as any."

The two quickly entered – being careful not to touch the slimy red ooze on the edges of the hole. The wind whistled around the cracked edges of the stone, making the building sound as if it were moaning in pain. 'Creepy.' Alex said.

"Lots of things here are creepy." Brainy said. "I wonder what happened here…"

Alex looked around. The hall they were in looked like a small bomb had gone off. 'I'm guessing either a bomb of an Eastlandian feud.'

"Eastlandian feud?"

'Yeah, we Eastlandians can get _pre-tty_ scary when we get mad.' Alex said. 'Which way?'

Brainy opened the top flap on his arm to reveal the computer pad beneath. Alex watching fascinated, hovering over Brainiac 5's head to get a better look. 'Whoa. That's cool.' He said. 'Not all the Coluan stuff is bad I guess.'

Brainy smiled. "Yeah, most but not all." He typed in a command and brought up a holographic screen with dots showing where his teammates were. "It looks like they're up about two floors. But, how do we get up there?"

'May I suggest the elevator?' Alex asked.

"Elevator?"

'That is what you call that thing right?' Alex pointed to the end of the hall where an elevator stood open.

Brainy shook his head in disbelief. "Wow. That's so… so…"

'Unexpected?'

"Yeah."

Alex smiled and walked over to the elevator. 'Which floor?'

**--:'''.,.,.,.''':--**

Gantor wiped a tear from his eye. Everyone had finally got over the laughing fit and relaxed a little. Trish was currently bandaging her leg where Tor had cut it with his scythe. Tor was attempting to polish his weapon with his right arm, and he wasn't having much success. The red blood that stained his scythe was just being spread around even more. This made the scythe look even more like the bloodthirsty, legendary weapon used by the Grim Reaper.

Trish tied the bandages Speed handed her tightly around her still bleeding leg. She gingerly stood up and hobbled to stand near Tor. "You have got to learn how to control your temper." She said.

Tor stopped polishing his scythe and stood up. His left arm hung down and shook limply, looking as though it was on backwards. "You weren't much better." He said.

Yoom quickly spoke, trying as hard as she could to prevent another fight, "Um… Tor! Let me look at your arm, I think it's broken."

Tor looked down at his limp arm as if he was seeing it for he first time. "Huh. So it is." His face screwed up in a bout of pain. "Trish."

"Yes Tor?" She said.

"I hate you." He growled.

Trish attempted a smile; it failed miserably, "Yeah, well I hate you too."

"I hate ya both!" Said a bright voice from the door.

The entire group turned as one to the door. "Brainy!" Lightning Lad and Superman cried together. Brainy was indeed standing in the doorway. And to his left…

"Alex?" Tor and Trish said together. Alex wiggled his fingers at them like a small child waving to his parents after a day of school.

Trish's eyes grew wide and Tor's mouth slowly opened. Then Trish's eyes rolled back into her head and she started to fall in a dead faint. "Whoa! I got ya!" Tor said. He extended his broken left arm and caught Trish. His face turned pure white. "Aggghrsslkhh!" He gave a strangled cry of pain before he too fell to the ground in a faint.

Alex stared at his two fallen friends. "Hmm. Am I that scary?" He asked as he put his arms up in a shrug.

Brainy laughed quietly to himself. The Legion and DAWIPA team looked at him. "What just happened?" Asked Gantor. "And why are Trish and Tor no longer among the conscious?"

"Alex." Brainy said simply. He turned to Superman, "What happened here? Why is this place so torn up?"

"Trish and Tor went a little crazy after the story." Superman said. "Where have you been?"

"Around." He answered. His maroon eyes followed, to everyone else at least, an invisible specter as whatever it was went over to Trish and Tor.

Before anyone could ask the android more, Phantom Girl, Saturn Girl, and Yoom came in. They looked terrible. The end of Phantom Girl's cape was stained with mud and Yoom had giant over exaggerated bags under her eyes. But their eyes grew in excitement, or maybe it was anger, at the sight of their lost quarry. "Brainy!" Phantom Girl and Saturn Girl ran over and promptly squished him in a hug. Yoom flew to Speed's shoulder.

"Oh what a night!" She said dramatically. "Crazy teenagers, wild dogs, and wet icky moss, oh!" Yoom threw a hand over her eyes. A white handkerchief appeared in her other hand and fluttered as though in a high wind. "It was absolutely murderous." She finished in a British accent. Speed giggled. Yoom let her arm drop and looked over at the still forms of Trish and Tor. "What's with them?" She said, her voice, now back to normal. She turned around in midair and donned a Sherlock Holmes hat, cape and magnifying glass. "I deduce it as a sudden traumatic shock causing a slight failure in the frontal lobes of the brains. In other words, for you Watson types, they have fainted." She smiled broadly.

Joe looked at Yoom, "Are you tired?" Yoom nodded and floated over to lie down and snuggle in his fur. The Legion looked at Joe with confused expressions on their faces. "When she gets really tired she starts to act like the cartoon she originally was." He said.

Yoom nodded sleepily. "So-" she yawned, "what's with them?" She said, pointing at the still forms of Trish and Tor.

"That's what we're asking." Gantor said. His face swiveled to look at Brainy, who was still being crushed in a hug by the girls. "What happened?"

Brainy attempted to duck under and out of the girls strangling arms. "Get off! I'm fine." He untangled himself from the girls and brushed himself off. "What do you mean 'what happened'?"

Speed gave Brainy a look as though he was crazy. "Trish and Tor just keeled over. Honestly, I can see the similarity between you and their 'Alex' but come on!"

Brainy looked over to Alex, who was kneeling next to Trish. Alex looked at him and shrugged. 'I don't know what their problem is.' He said.

"Alex is right there." Brainy said. He pointed at Alex. Alex stood up and waved.

"There's no one there." Lightning Lad said.

Brainy looked again. True enough, Alex was gone. "Yeah, he's moved. He's on your right Joe."

Joe whirled around to face Alex. He was about a foot away from him by Brainy's measurements. "He's not here."

Alex sighed. 'I guess I need to _show_ them.' He said to Brainy. He grabbed Joe's tail and pulled.

Joe screamed. He attempted to dislodge the ghost that still held on to his tail by kicking out at the air next to him. It was quite comical to watch. Brainy smirked. He could see Alex holding on to the tail and being dragged first to the right then to the left. The group watched as Joe started to run in circles with Yoom holding onto his mane dressed in a cowboy outfit. Brainy almost started to laugh at Alex who was being dragged by Joe in little circles.

The others, though laughing, were completely bewildered. "Brainy what is going on?" Lightning Lad asked.

Brainy looked at him. "I already told you. It's Alex. Trish and Tor must have seen him and the shock-"

"Alex?" Superman asked. "Isn't he supposed to be… you?" He finished quietly.

"Well, yes." Brainy said. "But… well, I'm not sure I know how to explain it."

Phantom Girl walked over to Trish and Tor. "Hello?" She waved her hand in front of Trish's face.

Trish's eyes fluttered. She moaned.

Tor lifted his hand that was not being smashed by Trish's body. "Yashe tryppened? (Yash-ee try-app-en-ded?)" He said. A mix of English and Eastlandian jumbling his words. He took a deep breath. "What happened?" He sat up. Phantom Girl lifted Trish so he could get his arm out. "Where's Alex?" He looked around the room, completely alert.

"Alex is here?" Phantom Girl asked. Tor nodded. She stood up and offered him a hand. He took it. "ALEX Alex. Not Brainy right?" Tor nodded.

Brainy looked to the still circling Joe, "Alex? Get off Joe."

Joe felt the grip on his tail disappear. He looked at the spot where Alex was standing. "Alright whoever you are, come out!"

Yoom popped up behind Joe's right ear. "Yeah! We know you're there you varmint! Come out with yer hands up!" She shouted in a western accent. She pointed two pistols at the spot where Alex was.

Brainy looked at Alex. "Why can't they see you?"

'How am I supposed to know?' Alex said.

This time the group heard him. "Who said that?" Asked Lightning Lad.

Brainy sighed. "For the last time its Alex."

'Hello!' Alex called.

"Wait. Wait. Wait." Saturn Girl lifted her hands and held them up in a stop motion. "Isn't Alex dead?"

'Am I?' asked Alex.

Saturn Girl suddenly pointed in horror at the spot where Alex stood. "Oh my God there he is! Just like in the memory!"

Lightning Lad's and Superman's mouths dropped open is shock. Joe turned tail and ran to the other side of the room. He hid behind Gantor's leg. Gantor gasped and sat down on the counter. Tor looked straight at Alex. He opened his mouth to speak but only got as far as "O, Yamista…" before he closed his eyes and fell back on top of Trish with a 'thump'.

'Wow. What a reaction… Do I have something in my teeth?' Alex looked around at the stunned Legion and DAWIPA. 'Maybe I should introduce myself to you… Hmmm… what would be a good word to describe me?' No one moved. Alex looked at Brainy who shrugged. 'Are they always like…' he gestured to the open mouths and bugging eyes, 'this?'

Brainy shook his head. "No. Come on guys. What are you so scared of?"

Superman shook the steely hand of shock from his body. "Brainy, what is the heck is going on?"

"How should I know? I'm the one who just found out the ground shattering secret about my life." Brainy said, anger creeping subtly into his voice.

'Yep. "Ground Shattering" That's what I am!' Alex smiled. No one joined in. 'Oh come on! I'm not that scary!' Alex pondered this for a moment, 'Am I?'

Alex walked, or more accurately floated (his feet were not even touching the ground) over to where Trish and Tor were laying. 'Come on buddy. Get off my sister.' He lifted Tor's limp form off of Trish and gently set Tor next to her. Alex kneeled down beside Trish's head. He lifted her head and placed it on his thighs. Alex smiled. He felt his eyes grow misty and laughed quietly. 'Thought I'd never see you again, Trish. You should've looked harder.' His voice hardened slightly. Brainy noticed- but he wasn't sure how. According to his scanners Alex's voice hadn't changed in the slightest.

Superman looked at Phantom Girl. Phantom Girl looked at Lightning Lad. Lightning Lad looked at Saturn Girl. Saturn Girl looked at Brainy. Brainy raised his eyebrows at them. "What?"

They all looked away except Saturn Girl. "Um… Brainy… What exactly happened?" He opened his mouth again to tell her again that he didn't know but she cut him off- "I mean, what happened after the memory? Are you okay?"

Brainy closed his open mouth. He didn't have an answer for this. Was he okay? He had completely forgotten, for a second at least, to think about his own feelings. He looked at his teammates. They were all looking at him waiting for a response. Brainy couldn't think what he felt. It was almost as if his mind was preventing from dealing with the information. He shrugged.

Saturn Girl looked at him strangely. Lightning Lad just blinked at him. "A shrug? That's all we get?" He mimicked Brainy's shrug, screwing his face up into an over exaggerated dumb smile. "Come on! We're dying here!"

Trish moaned. Alex spoke to the group without looking away from her. 'Why did they feud?'

"Tor was… angry that Trish never told him that the Coluans saw her on the ship." Speed said, looking at the ground.

Alex nodded. He pushed a stray hair away from Trish's face. Unconsciously trying to rub off a smudge on her cheek. Gently his hand wiped away a drip of blood now coming from a large scratch on her forehead. 'Always looking out for me… even now.' He looked at the others in the room. 'It wasn't Trish they saw.' He said. 'It was me.'

No one moved at this statement. No one could quite grasp what Alex had said.

"What?" Asked Gantor.

'Trish and I were the last ones on the ship- but I tripped and the Coluans saw me.' Alex looked down to his sister. 'Isn't that right Trish?'

Everyone focused their eyes on Trish. She was stiff as a board but her eyes were now open. The white pupils were almost three times larger than normal. The eyes were as big a dinner plates, staring at Alex. "No." she said. She pushed herself out of her little brother's arms and started to back away. "No." She said again, more forcefully. She backed away, eyes glued onto the form of Alex. "No." This was more panicked as Trish's movements became stiffer.

Tor started to stir. He blearily blinked his eyes and sat up. His head turned to see Trish still backing away. "Trish?" She looked at him and shuddered. Tor crawled over to her and held her tightly. "What? What is it Trish? What's wrong?" He whispered gently into her ear. She didn't answer and pointed, her arm visibly shaking, at Alex. Tor turned to Alex. His eyes narrowed.

Alex stood up as though he had been shouted at. 'He-hey Tor.' He sounded a lot less confident than when he had first entered.

"You shouldn't be here." Trish and Tor said together. Tor's voice low and serious, Trish's high and panicked.

'But-'

"No!" Trish buried her head in Tor's shoulder; much like a small child during a scary movie.

The rest of the people in the room could only stare at the strange family reunion. Superman, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Phantom Girl longed to ask Brainy what had happened to him, how Alex had appeared. Saturn Girl almost ached to try to comfort the small android; who was standing completely absorbed with the scene before him. Thanks to her physic abilities she could tell that Brainy was seriously shaken by the night's events. But for some reason, Brainy wasn't thinking about what he had learned. Something was wrong but she couldn't understand why.

Alex stood there dumbfounded. His mouth was open. Alex stared at Tor and Trish with eyes that almost burned with questions and hurt. Tor continued to glare at him, eyes burning into the specter of his friend a long time gone. Abruptly he turned his piercing gaze onto Brainy. "Take him back." He said. "His time is gone. It's over."

Alex opened his eyes wider in shock. Tor glared at him. Alex closed his eyes and nodded, eyes on the ground. 'I just, wanted to be real again…' He whispered, so quietly it was as though it was just a thought. Alex started to float backwards. Brainy looked down at the ground, his face wearing an expression identical to Alex. Phantom Girl watched in terror as the ghostly form of Alex floated backwards as though in a current to Brainy- who was now standing like Alex.

Brainy and Alex collided. There was a dull flash of blue light as Alex was absorbed into Brainy's form. Brainy's head shot up and looked at Tor. " ' I just wanted to be real.' " He said in a voice that had the faint ring of Alex's voice in it. Brainiac 5 shuddered and closed his eyes. He took a step back before shaking his head and straightened up. As his eyes opened he found everyone staring at him. "What?"

"Where did Alex go?" Asked Lightning Lad, a little frightened. This did not go unnoticed by Brainy.

"Why? Are you scared?" He asked sarcastically. "Is the scary ghost gonna get you?"

Lightning Lad backed up slightly at the sting in Brainy's voice, a sting that had never been there before. "Hey- no need to attack me dude."

"Who's attacking you?" Brainy asked, a little too loudly.

"Hey- calm down." Superman said.

Brainy turned to him, a fire burning behind his metal eyes that rivaled Superman's own laser-shooting retinas. "I am calm!" He said.

Trish looked up in terror at Brainy. "Alex! Stop it! Let go of him! You have to let go!"

Brainy looked over at Trish. "But-"

"ALEX!" Trish screamed, tears flowing down her face once more, "Please just stop!"

Brainy shuddered. He looked up at Trish. His eyes were no longer filled with anger- instead there was terror in them.

Saturn Girl and Phantom Girl stepped back from just catching a side view of Brainy's eyes. Saturn Girl for sensing Brainy's terror with her psychic abilities and Phantom Girl because she could sense Alex with her own ghosting abilities.

Then Brainy spoke- in that voice that was half his and half Alex, "What's happening to me?" He raised his hand up and stared at it as though he had never seen it before. "What's happening to me?" He repeated again. He looked up and this time scanned the room- "Help me." He whispered. Then after giving Superman, Saturn Girl, and Phantom Girl the piercing look of terror that was in his eyes he ran out of the room once again and back into the night.

**-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --**

**I am sooooooo sorry for how long this took. I have had a horrible summer of writer's block. I'm trying desperately to get back into these stories. And I'm sorry. Thank you for staying with this story- I'll try to be better. Please don't give up on me- I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!**


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